Debate contribution: Health and Social Care Transformation

Debate contribution by Mr Maurice Bradley on 6 October 2026.

MLA: Mr Maurice Bradley
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 6 October 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Health and Social Care Transformation
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5777090

Text

I recognise the frustration behind the motion. Patients are waiting, staff are under pressure and people across Northern Ireland know that our health service needs reform. However, I cannot support a motion that speaks about transformation without confronting the central questions. Where is the money? Where is the workforce? Where is the practical plan to deliver it? The Bengoa report was published in 2016. Its principles may still matter, but it is approaching 10 years and cannot be treated as a current, costed blueprint for today's pressure or workforce. We need an updated plan with clear costs, timescales and accountability. Reform cannot be delivered by repeating "transformation" while the funding remains uncertain. People in the Causeway area that I represent have heard promises for years. Services have been drip-fed away from Causeway Hospital, while the promised elective and diagnostic role still lacks a publicly funded, protected budget, theatre sessions, staffing numbers, and recruitment plans and delivery dates. Now emergency general surgery is proposed for removal. Where is the site-specific costing? What surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, theatres and beds are funded at Antrim compared with Causeway, and how will the trust recruit staff? Those commitments have not been set out. I fear that concentrating surgery at Antrim and elective surgery at Causeway without resources risks moving the pressure and failing patients at both hospitals. The safe course is to retain emergency general surgery at Causeway while the Minister requests a transparent, properly funded assessment of every option. Causeway serves the rural and coastal communities. Access and travel time must count in that assessment. From Cushendall to Ballycastle, from Ballycastle to Limavady and everywhere in between is the catchment area of Causeway Hospital. I add to that that removing emergency services from Causeway will heap pressure on Altnagelvin, which is already under pressure, because that, not Antrim, becomes our nearest hospital. Reform must also reach the trusts themselves. Management structures and overheads must face the same scrutiny as front-line services, particularly after former Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, called for reductions across all five trusts. The new Minister is right to gather the facts. The nearest hospital is Altnagelvin. That is under pressure. There is no ambulance cover. That has never been factored into the proposal to remove emergency general surgery from Causeway. However, there is a correlation right across Northern Ireland, where waiting lists are increasing while hospital services are decreasing. I urge the Minister to commission an independent examination of how every trust manages its funds, what is spent on management, what reaches front-line care and whether resources are used effectively. I want reform that patients can see and staff can deliver, but without honest scrutiny of staff management, and without firm financial and workforce commitments, the motion offers political words where people need a workable plan. For those reasons, I cannot support it.

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

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