Health and Social Care (or HSC) is the designation of the publicly funded service responsible for the administration of the public health and social care services in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Health Department is responsible for the funding of the service.
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The Department is organised under a Permanent Secretary into several groups and one agency. These are the Planning and Resources Group, Strategic Planning and Modernisation Group and Primary, Secondary and Community Care Group and the 5 Professional Groups. The Department’s Executive Agency is the Health and Social Services Estates Agency (known as Health Estates). [1]
The five professional groups are
Trusts are the statutory bodies responsible for the management of staff, health and social care services on the ground and have control their own budgets. In 2007 the 19 Health and Social Services Trusts were merged into six Health and Social Care Trusts.
Northern Ireland also has its own dedicated Ambulance Service.