Shortly after his appointment as health minister, Mike Nesbitt announced that he was inviting Professor Rafael Bengoa back to Northern Ireland, to help “reboot” the reform agenda.

The eminent expert returned to the north last week. His one-day visit to address a conference at the La Mon Hotel was an excruciating reminder of how little has been achieved in the eight years since the publication of his landmark report.

As expected, the professor was his usual charming, softly-spoken, affable self, noting that he was “of course very aware of the challenges Northern Ireland has faced over the period since 2016″.

He reassured his audience that we were by no means unique, as healthcare systems right across Europe were facing “major struggles”.

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He is right. Healthcare systems face common challenges including funding constraints, workforce shortages, an ageing population, rising operational costs, growing demand and increased expectations.

However, the north is in a league of its own when it comes to underperformance in health and social care. The suffering that this has caused is hard to overstate.

Rather than struggling to keep pace with new technologies or adopt scientific advances, we are failing to deliver basic healthcare to huge swathes of the population. Thousands of........

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