Debate contribution: Daisy Hill Hospital: Inpatient Maternity Services
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 (made as a minister)
- Business
- Ministerial Statement
- Heading
- Daisy Hill Hospital: Inpatient Maternity Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742417
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his words. He is absolutely right to pitch his question in such a way. My commitment is that it is my ambition and that of the Department to retain the maternity service at Daisy Hill. What I cannot do is magic up an obstetrician, unfortunately, much as I would like to. I can say, however, that no stone is being left unturned to see how we can recruit into that post, whether that be on a temporary basis or, more important, on a longer-term basis. We really need to engage in that. In fact, there is a piece of work — I think that I mentioned it in the statement — on how we do that and how we pitch our hospitals and our networks in Northern Ireland as the place to work. A lot of things will be included in that, and there are a lot of things that we need to consider. In any transformation or changes, we must ensure that our services are safe and sustainable. That must come first, before we get to any transformation. There is absolutely no question of my commitment or the Department's commitment to anything but a maternity unit at Daisy Hill.
Thank you. Whoever holds the role of Health Minister is faced with questions like that annually. I absolutely understand and am acutely interested in workforce planning. As we know — if you have worked on the Health Committee, you will know — clinical practice goes hand in hand with that and is evolving. We now have obstetricians, gynaecologists, general surgeons and emergency general surgeons specialising in routes that will have evidently better outcomes. In the interim, my job and that of the trust is to ensure that we have safe, available services. I remain aware of and acutely invested in workforce planning. I have been looking at that with regard to Daisy Hill. We certainly need to look at it. We cannot have a sustainable system without looking at workforce and what the throughput looks like.
341 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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