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
- Business
- Ministerial Statement
- Heading
- Daisy Hill Hospital: Inpatient Maternity Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742445
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There are a lot of factors at play to explain why we are where we are. The political stagnation that resulted from five years of not having Ministers to drive change in any of our Departments has led to a lot of what is now happening. There is a belief, and it is probably a heartfelt belief, predominantly in the Member's party that this is about removing maternity services by stealth, but it absolutely is not. I absolutely agree with the Member on her first point. There are serious complications when clinicians, of whatever specialty, are removed from a unit. That does have a knock-on effect. I have become acutely aware of that in my early days in post, and it is a question that I keep coming back to. One of the purposes of the independent reconfiguration commission (IRC) will be to examine what happens if we want to do something in one space and in the next space, even if it is a planned move, because we cannot just move problems around the board. We need to get serious, and I believe that we are in a better place as we tackle our waiting lists through initiatives. The problems that have arisen today, however, are not part of anybody's master plan. Rather, they are contractual issues. Staff have the ability to move, to resign or to take another job, and that is what has led to today's announcement. It was not in anybody's plan.
I thank the Member for her question. I am not sure that it has anything to do with Daisy Hill, but I will allow it. No, the system has not collapsed, but there are significant difficulties in our health service. Her question is a good question, as it gives me an opportunity to make another point. Last week, I saw a report on compliments about and complaints against our health service workers. An awful lot of good work goes on across our health and social care system every single day. Today, it is right that we shine a light on failures, on where things are not working and on where we need to fix things, but we also need to recognise that the system has not collapsed. Today, the health service will deliver thousands of appointments, after which thousands of people will walk out satisfied that they got the appropriate care.
However, today is not a good-news day. Today is a day on which we are dealing with a significant, emerging problem, but it is receiving the appropriate focus.
I thank the Member for his question and his persistence in getting it in. I know that it is an issue that is really important to you, Justin. It is an area of health that you are passionate about, and I am similarly passionate about it. I do not take it for granted. I am conscious that I speak as a man, who has never navigated that journey, but I have every respect for those who have, and I supported my wife and daughter through it. The Member raises a really interesting point — I cannot change it in this mandate — about how care is provided. Sometimes, unfortunately, we are talking about moving hospitals and services when, actually, we should have some more agility in our service. In the longer term, I would like to see, through negotiations with bodies, agility within our service whereby, if someone needs care, that care is moved to where they are. We want to move care closer to the community, and I suggest that Daisy Hill is an excellent example of a hospital at the heart of a community. With over 1,700 births in a year, it is a viable maternity unit. By the metric of the Southern Trust being responsible for 23% of births in Northern Ireland, that could not be clearer. Every one of those is a little life. Pregnancy and birth are critical moments that do not come easy in many cases, and one has to be conscious of that. That is why this is so important. My Department will work at pace. The Member said that it is not an "emerging" problem. I am happy to give him some benefit of the doubt for that, because he is a constituency MLA and evidently knows what has gone on there better than I do, as I am in post only four and a half weeks. I will not critique that, but I will give him a firm and resolute promise that I am working on both a temporary fix and a long-term fix.
I thank the Member for that question. It is a live question that is under assessment. The quality of our roads, particularly in rural areas, is for another debate, and we debate that many times. Access to transport is also an issue. They are fundamental pressures for anyone in those places who is pregnant. When we look at the reconfiguration of transformation, we need to factor in and consider those pressures before we take a decision to change any service. Unfortunately, in this case, this has been thrust upon us, but I can confirm to the Member that that is a question that has been asked of the Southern Trust. The Department remains resolute in trying to help to resolve that. It is a significant pressure for those who live furthest away, because they could be the most vulnerable.
I thank the Member for his question. First, I congratulate you. I know that that is late to the game, but your daughter is beautiful: she obviously takes after her mum.
He is right to pay tribute to Southern Trust staff.
Having experienced childbirth with my wife through the birth of my son and daughter and the birth of my granddaughter to my daughter, I am acutely aware of the fact — I may be uber-sensitive to it — that women need to be able to safely access that service. In answer to the first part of his question, I am absolutely committed to trying to sort it. The Member asked a really good question, and I can candidly say that I am not aware of any imminent pressures or of anything else that is under threat. However, the workforce remains a significant pressure anyway. We have 6,500 vacancies across the health and social care system. I am not saying that all those vacancies need to be filled, because we are in a process of making sure that efficiencies are maximised and that roles that are filled have good outcomes. That is a space that we are moving into, but there has to be an impact. There is a fiscal impact when we do not have people to fill roles, such as those in obstetrics. There are vacancies right across the gamut. For clarity, in response to the Member's question, I am not aware of anything at the moment that is under pressure, other than the normal, everyday pressures that our fabulous health and social care staff face.
I thank the Member for both questions. On the first, two things are very live. There is a potential for the withdrawal of services at Daisy Hill. That is the temporary piece, but we can do things in addition to the contract in that temporary space to try to attract the appropriate obstetrician with the appropriate experience in order to provide safe maternity care there, but that does not fix the problem in the long term, which is slightly more complex. The Department is, however, already quite far down the road towards developing the plan to attract the right people and have them in the right place at the right time. Hopefully, in the future, we will not have such debates again or bring unnecessary stress to the people who use our services.
1,308 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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