Debate contribution: Hip Surgery: Waiting Times
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Hip Surgery: Waiting Times
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742283
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for her question. In answer to questions earlier, I said that one of the good things about serving on multiple Committees in this place is that we get to understand the pressures that everyone else faces. It is probably an early commitment of mine to try to ensure that, as far as we can, there is equitable access to all health and social care. Being Chair of the AERA Committee really reinforced for me the idea that we need to understand that 30% of our people live in rural areas and the impact that that has on their proximity to primary and secondary care services. Some 30,000 people responded to the 2024 consultation on transformation and on reconfiguring the network. That should make us all sit up. I make a commitment that, when it comes to equitable access, everything will be looked at forensically. We have to do that within budget, but we cannot forget those who live further away from our services. They need to be central to all the decision-making on how they access the health and social care system.
186 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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