The plan commits to establishing a neighbourhood centred health and social care system and sets out measures to counter a £600m services gap this year.

Nesbitt said the services faced a ‘defining and watershed year', adding: ‘We have to deliver on reform and waiting list investment, while at the same time securing efficiencies and savings on a scale not seen before. There are both challenges and opportunities of huge significance.'

The minister said ‘bringing more services as close as possible to people's front doors' must be at the heart of reform, including ‘a new model of primary care and early intervention'.

The plan sets out the ‘most ambitious efficiency programme' in the history of Northern Ireland's health and social care system, which is designed to achieve £300m in savings in 2025/26, in addition to the £200m delivered in 2024/25. 

Measures include improving trust financial controls, reducing locum and agency costs, increasing workforce availability through absence reduction, removing unwarranted variation in clinical care and procurement, optimising medicines spend, reducing central budgets and administrative costs and maximising the income the HSC can attract through research and innovation. 

Plans for waiting list investment, reflecting a key Programme for Government priority, were detailed in an Implementation and Funding Plan published in May 2024. 

NI Confederation for Health and Social Care spokesperson, Professor Mark Taylor, commented: ‘A crucial element to supporting delivery of this ambitious plan will be building a one-system approach. HSC leaders have been working intensively to create stronger mechanisms for system working. Key priorities will include accessing system efficiencies, reducing unwarranted clinical variation and embedding these new ways of working to deliver a more collaborative culture. 

‘There are no overnight fixes, especially in the face of ever-growing demand, but this plan sets out a credible and pragmatic, if challenging, way forward.'