On Monday 31 March 2008 the Modernisation in Health and Social Care seminar took place in the Comfort Hotel, Antrim. Sponsored by BT, it was attended by over 60 people, from different levels across the health and social care system. Speakers discussed a range of issues and case studies around themes of modernisation in health and social care, progress, challenges, advances and the future.

The speakers included:

• Paul White Chief executive London NHS Programme for BT was the first to speak and talked about how difficult health IT can be. He described the changing environment and more demanding future needs such as demographic growth and an ageing population; care provided is more complex; patients want greater involvement in decisions about their care. This makes paper based systems limited in terms of sharing information The NHS has responded to this by providing a diversity of IT solutions and services. BT has been at the forefront of this process.
• Paul Duffy from Belfast HSC Trust has just experienced the merger of six HSC Trusts into Belfast HSC Trust. Paul talked about the challenges in integrating the six legacy trusts all with multiple IT systems, into one single trust and the difficulties in attempting to do this whilst having to achieve efficiency savings. This was emphasised by both Paul Duffy and Paul White who cautioned against positioning IT as separate. If it perceived as an IT project- it will fail. It must be seen as an integral part of the organisation's strategic objectives.
  ICT is at the core every industry such as banking sector and in recognising the significance and criticalness of ICT to every other aspect of the organisation has rejected this in its investment. This has not happened in health and social care.
• Lorraine Gibson, Principal Officer for Supported Housing Development Northern HSC Trust and Barbara Taylor FOLD Housing Association talked about supported housing- specially designed, managed and adapted to meet the needs of people.
  Both described Barn Halt Cottages which currently has 26 Cottages, with 33 tenancies, made up of 7 double tenancies and 19 single tenancies. Each Tenant receives an equivalent of 2 hours per day Support from FOLD Support Staff, paid for via Supporting People funding.
  The benefits of Telecare were also highlighted and participants heard from the experience of one tenant who believed the system worked extremely well and enabled him to live independently.
• The final speaker was Andrew Hamilton Acting Chief Executive European Centre for Connected Health. Andrew said the timing of the event couldn't be better and talked about the huge contribution ICT makes to connected health. E-health market is accelerating.
  A healthy population is vital for a functioning stable economy and promotes economic prosperity- this is the message the European Centre for Connected Health is trying to deliver, Andrew told the audience and the space they are trying to occupy.