Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announces consultation on Neurology services
“We can and must do more to help people with a neurological condition,” Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said.
The Minister was speaking as he launched a public consultation on the final report of the Regional Review of Neurology services, which he also published today.
In a Written Ministerial Statement marking the publication, the Minister said the report’s recommendations provided a roadmap to deliver an ambitious, long-term plan to drive improvements in services.
Minister Nesbitt said: “Today I am publishing the final report of the Neurology Review and launching a public consultation on the report’s analysis, key findings and proposed recommendations to drive improvements in future services.
“It is clear that there is a long path ahead to ensure that people with neurological conditions in Northern Ireland have equitable access to responsive, person-centred and sustainable services.
“This is a once in a generation opportunity and it is critical that people engage with the consultation to inform a final Action Plan.”
The Minister said the report’s analysis of current services was sobering and the scale of improvement needed was substantial.
He welcomed the vision outlined in the report that Neurology services should be person-centred, joined-up, responsive and suitably resourced.
Four priority areas with supporting recommendations have been identified to support the delivery of the vision contained within the report.
These are:
- Making Neurology a person-centred service;
- Developing additional workforce capacity within Neurology;
- Addressing gaps in current services;
- Using current resources more effectively
The Minister also noted that, while there will be an on-going focus on using current neurology resources more effectively, the full implementation of the report’s recommendations will require significant additional funding.
“The current constrained budget environment means that it will be highly challenging to find additional funding for this in the short term.
“Therefore, I will need to secure significant additional funding in future budget exercises to take this forward.
“However, I will carefully consider funding to implement the Neurology Review in the context of competing priorities and future budgets made available to my department,” he added.
The consultation will close at 5pm on 6 August 2025.
The Department is hosting a number of public engagement events to support the consultation at several locations across Northern Ireland over the coming months.
These events will provide the opportunity to present the analysis, findings and proposed recommendations set out in the report; ask questions from an expert panel, and support and promote engagement in the consultation.
The Neurology Review report, consultation documents, details of the public engagement events and details on how to respond, can be found at:
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