Days 1 & 2 of our Ireland-Australia Digital Health Exchange

Alongside the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce , six companies are exploring Northern Ireland and Irish healthcare markets.

Days one and two have included tours of the Catalyst Innovation Centre with Elaine Smyth , Director of Entrepreneurship and Scaling, a physical facility that would be delighted to act as a landing pad for any Australian companies alongside their current 3000 tenants from early-stage to multinational companies across the Innovation sector. As well as the tenancy space, companies can connect with the support ecosystem, including local VC and Angel community,? Invest Northern Ireland and Innovate UK funding opportunities.

Through the City Deals program, ￡1 billion has been invested into Northern Ireland to support sectors of interest and digital health is one of them. For those looking to conduct research and make partnerships, there is a ￡45M Centre for Digital Healthcare Technology opening in 2025. For those looking to start a research collaboration before 2025, reach out to Dr Paschal McCloskey , Centre Director of the Northern Ireland CHIC - Connected Health Innovation Centre , which has a focus on academic-industry partnerships and funding of ￡75k- ￡250k per project to support SME projects.

High-level points on the Northern Ireland market:

• Northern Ireland can be an attractive place to do business with salaries at two-thirds of those in London, due to the lower cost of living.
• Incentives such as 40% funding through Invest Northern Ireland are available to set up a satellite office.
• Demographically, Northern Ireland is rapidly ageing. The population is 1.9 million people and the House budget is ￡14 billion.
• The private health market in Northern Ireland is small but there has been a 50 to 60% increase in private health system demand in the last five years.
• For care such as in the community, aged care, in-community disability care and home palliative care, the government pays hourly allotments through care packages. Sometimes families or clients top it up with extra hours.
• 7000 people are waiting on home care, blocking hospital beds.

It is hard to operate a business in Northern Ireland without appreciating the politics, so it was an honour to visit Parliament and meet with Colm Gindernew, MLA, chair of the Health Committee in the Assembly, and Tony Feiny, Sinn Fein Health Policy.

There is currently no parliament established to sit due to ongoing negotiations following the election last May, in which Sinn Fein won the majority and will govern with the mandatory coalition process. They aim to be set up by September.

While I would not rely on this summary as your source of Brexit impact and Northern Irish political knowledge, my thanks go to Stephen McGlade, Chief of Staff to Michelle O’Neill, Deputy First Minister, for explaining to us the layers of agreements which means that Northern Ireland remains aligned with the EU (not the UK) on many standards, including those relating to digital health and health technology.

“The regulatory system in Northern Ireland remains aligned to the EU. Any changes would need to go through (Northern Ireland parliament) which is unlikely in the current climate.”

To sell into Northern Ireland, use European certification.

Northern Ireland has five trusts who deliver care and, unique from the English NHS trusts, both health and social care are managed together. Commissioning occurs through the Department of Health, and it is envisioned that commissioning will be governed by the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG). So, to sell a product you would need to be commissioned through the SPPG, and also make sure that the Trusts are aware of your product.

Areas of interest for Northern Ireland are strongly aligned with those we learned about last week in the UK:

• Workforce – including skills and retention (there are 7300 vacancies).
• Waiting lists – currently 4000 people are on the waiting list for their first consultant appointment with an average waiting time of one year.
• GP Support – GPs are struggling to meet demand, which puts pressure on the hospital system.
• Community care – with staffing and funding issues, the hospitals are becoming blocked with people who cannot be discharged.

“With regards to health for Sinn Fein this is our number one issue to address: workforce.” – Colm Gildernew

To end the day on an upbeat note, it was inspiring to visit a relatable Northern Irish-connected health company that is succeeding in the current market and delivering digital health-backed care.

Douglas Adams, CEO of Connected Health Group Limited , took us through his personal driver of watching his mother's care and seeing the challenges in the care services sector. He has built a business leveraging technology that now has 2000 workers and delivers 4.5 million visits per year. The objective is to keep people out of nursing homes, adult care homes and hospitals, while supporting their staff and leveraging technology. They have one of the highest retention rates.

To support care, they use a number of technology solutions:

• Activity trackers to monitor improvements.
• Digital observation monitoring systems (connected devices that Bluetooth to their app and go into the NHS system).
• YourMeds medication management system.

They have also digitised many of their operations, including allocating staff based on proximity, digital recruitment, digital rostering and digital training.

Stay tuned for our wrap up on the next two days in Ireland ????