The British government has announced major reforms of healthcare provisions in the North with a focus placed on treatment at home or in the community rather than a hospital bed.
Unveiling what he described as a seismic shift in the way health and social care services will be delivered in the future, the North's Health Minister, Paul Goggins, also pledged to end trolley waits for those going into hospital.
In an attempt to free beds, he set a 72-hour time limit for the discharge of patients after they had been declared fit to leave hospital.
Mr Goggins said a formal link will be introduced between the North's health service and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellent (Nice), which advises when new drugs should be administered.
Addressing a conference of health professionals in Belfast, the minister said: "We need to see people treated in their local community as far as is medically possible. When they need a hospital bed they should get one as quickly as possible. That is why I am pledging today to eliminate trolley waits."
He said that by March 2008 patients would either be treated and discharged, or admitted to a hospital ward, within four hours.
Only where there were strong clinical reasons would a wait of more than four hours be permitted.
The Minister revealed that far too many people were still waiting in hospital to see a doctor - between 200 and 300 a day - when they were fit to go home.
He said the hospital system should be nurse-led rather than waiting for a slot in a busy consultant's day.
PA