Future Health Summit: coming together for a healthier tomorrow

The Future Health Summit is a unique event on the Irish healthcare calendar in that it brings together all strands of the sector from the pharmaceutical giants through clinicians and hospital groups to academics and innovative start-up companies under one roof to discuss common concerns.

The conference, which takes place on May 26th and 27th in the Citywest Convention Centre, is set to attract more than 2,000 delegates from every area of the healthcare sector to hear over 160 expert speakers address some of the key challenges facing modern health services.

Todd Manning, general manager of AbbVie in Ireland, believes the event offers an opportunity to meet potential research and development partners. "AbbVie is a research-driven biopharmaceutical company with innovation at its core," he says. "We use our global expertise and unique approach to innovation to develop therapies that address some of the world's most complex and serious diseases. AbbVie's footprint in Ireland extends from R&D collaborations to manufacturing and commercial operations, including the provision of bespoke patient-support programmes.

"More recently, our global organisation has collaborated with Science Foundation Ireland to invest in a number of collaborative research opportunities with academic groups across the country with the aim of identifying novel treatment pathways for a number of diseases, with our main areas of research interest focused on solid and blood cancers, immune-mediated disease and neurodegenerative disorders.

“We are continually on the lookout for further opportunities to collaborate with universities and start-up companies in Ireland, harnessing the expertise and experience of the world-class research groups and the entrepreneurial spirit of the newly-established companies,” he adds. “Events such as the Future Health Summit facilitate dialogue between global biopharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie and early-phase researchers and small companies by focusing on what can be achieved by working towards a common goal, which is to bring life-changing new treatments to the patients that need them the most.”

Simon Nugent, chief executive of the Private Hospitals Association, sees it as an opportunity for his members to engage an interact with the wider health community. "We have been involved in the Future Health Summit since the very beginning," he says. "The opportunity to look outside of the hospital and see what's happening in the wider world is very welcome."

International presence

The strong international presence at this year’s conference is of particular importance, according to Nugent. “The delivery of hospital care is becoming more internationalised,” he notes. “The EU Cross-Border Treatment Directive entitles patients who can’t access care in their home country to get it in another member state in the public or private systems. This will have a profound impact in the future.”

He believes this ought to present opportunities for Ireland in the longer term. “When people criticise the health system here they tend to overlook the fact that the quality of care delivered in Ireland is recognised internationally.”

Closer to home he contends that many of the current difficulties besetting the health service could be solved or at least greatly alleviated through closer collaboration between the public and private hospital systems. “This is all about what we do for the patient, and we need to get better at planning in the system. The leadership sessions at the conference will offer a real opportunity to have an open and frank exchange between the public and private systems.”

Cancer diagnostics

Nugent cites the area of cancer diagnostics as one where collaboration has already borne fruit. Pointing to the waiting-list statistics recently published by the Irish Cancer Society, he says that private hospitals have invested heavily to achieve an average wait time for their patients of five days for most scans and 10 days for endoscopies.

“Those waiting for long periods on public lists could be seen far more quickly if a partnership approach was implemented”, says Nugent. “When this does happen the results are dramatic. To take just one example, in 2015 the HSE arranged for the Galway Clinic to assess 500 urology patients drawn from the public waiting list, some of whom had been waiting more than a year for a consultant appointment after referral by their GP. The patients were assessed, diagnosed and treated in two months. Only a small proportion, those identified as manifesting non-urgent symptoms but with serious underlying illnesses, needed to be referred back to the public hospital for further treatment.

“There is no reason why any patients should have to wait longer than a few weeks for scans and scopes,” he adds. “We have enough diagnostic equipment in hospitals in Ireland to ensure that all GPs’ referrals should be seen promptly.”

Another area Nugent points to is lengthening waiting lists. “We should be realistic,” he says. “Waiting lists are growing and will grow longer due to the changing pressures on our health system. As the population ages, emergency departments in hospitals are encountering more patients in need of beds and that in turn means those beds are not available for elective patients. This results in elective surgery theatre lists being cancelled, and the problem spirals.”

He says that what he calls a “decisive initiative” to reduce waiting lists could solve the problem. “About 50 per cent of the elective surgery procedures performed in Ireland each year happen in private hospitals. Our theatres and personnel are already quite busy. However, if a structured waiting list initiative was developed to address the needs of some of the 100,000 people awaiting in-patient treatment, our hospitals would be able to plan and to flex their capacity, agreeing revised rosters with staff and opening theatres and other facilities for longer hours and at weekends so as to address the backlog.”

Relieve pressure

A similar approach could relieve pressure on A&E departments. “It is very rare that a patient presenting in an overstretched emergency department is referred to a bed in a nearby private hospital if one is available. This is an option that should be considered regardless of whether the patient has private health insurance.”

He is hopeful that this sort of co-operation can become a reality. “Healthcare is so important and so long-term in nature that it can’t be subject to the sort of Punch and Judy political debates we have seen in the past. I’m glad to see that there appears to be a growing consensus on the need for long-term planning and joined-up thinking in the sector, and the Future Health Summit will hopefully provide a forum for further progress in that regard.”