Member's statement: Causeway Hospital: Emergency General Surgery

Member's statement by Ms Claire Sugden on 7 September 2026.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

7 September 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Causeway Hospital: Emergency General Surgery

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5669645

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I reiterate my continued opposition to the removal of emergency general surgery from Causeway Hospital. I do not oppose change for the sake of it. The Northern Trust argues that the current model cannot be sustained across two sites, that emergency surgical demand at Antrim Area Hospital is significantly higher and that workforce and capacity pressures must be addressed. If a service is genuinely unsafe, at risk of collapse or putting lives at risk, of course, we must act. Accepting the problem, however, does not require us to accept that as the solution, because there is another clinical view here, and it must be heard. I speak regularly with senior medical staff at Causeway who believe that this is the wrong decision. The clinicians' concern is that we are weakening one functioning, sustainable hospital to compensate for pressures elsewhere, and they tell us that that has consequences. Antrim is under enormous pressure. I know that hospital well. I spent time there during my pregnancy and after giving birth, and I listened to the clinicians working there. Ultimately, Antrim is the spillover hospital for north Belfast, and, if it were in the Belfast Trust, we would be having a different debate. However, the answer to the pressures cannot simply be to transfer resources from Causeway to Antrim. Are we transforming the service or managing the cost of failure elsewhere? Emergency general surgery cannot be viewed as an isolated unit on a spreadsheet. Remove it, and we must consider what follows. What does it mean for intensive care and anaesthetics? What does it mean for paediatrics, for services needed by an ageing population in an area with the most ageing population in Northern Ireland and, ultimately, for the sustainability of a 24/7 emergency department?

I recognise the assurances that have been given that Causeway will remain an acute hospital with a 24/7 emergency department. However, my concern is not simply what Causeway will look like in a year but what it will look like five or 10 years from now if we continue to remove the services that underpin an acute hospital. The trust's strategic vision is increasingly one of developing Causeway as an elective and diagnostic hub. Those services are welcome, but they cannot be a substitute for the acute healthcare that the north coast needs. Access matters too. For someone in Limavady, Coleraine or a rural community, getting to Antrim is not insignificant. I travelled there every week during my pregnancy, and I wondered how I would do it if I did not have a car. We have an ageing population, families matter to recovery, and geography matters to healthcare. If inconvenience were the only argument, I would support the proposal, but it is not. Doctors send me questions to ask the Health Minister about safety, capacity projections and the wider consequences for Causeway. This is not just about wanting to keep it in our backyard; it is about health and safety, which matters as much to the people of Causeway as it does to people in Antrim.

508 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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