Debate contribution: Causeway Hospital: Emergency General Surgery
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Causeway Hospital: Emergency General Surgery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5786303
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I really do thank the Member for her question, because it gives me the chance to address something that was maybe misconstrued. There has been no pause on any network reconfiguration. What has been paused is how we name services and what we call them. It is literally a pressure that I identified when I talked to service users. Sometimes we overcomplicate the system. We relegate and promote systems by giving them a terminology that maybe does not best fit the system and the service that they have. That causes unnecessary nervousness and a disconnect from the very people whom the hospital network is designed to serve. On
, I have not paused any work in that space. What I have asked is that we drop the four names that were developed for the purpose of describing a hospital. As I have said many times, depending on where you live, you already experience healthcare delivery in a different way. If you live rurally, it is a bigger challenge to get a domiciliary care package, and there is sometimes a nervousness if a person has a long drive to a hospital for acute care. In the short time that I have — I will not be able to address it in six months — I want to re-establish the social contract between service user and service provider. As I have said many times, we all want the same thing, which is better health outcomes. We have the best clinicians and the best people in the world, and we need to ensure that the service is understood and that health is not done to people but with people. Hopefully, that arrests that line of thought. To reiterate, tackling waiting lists and providing better health and social care remains my absolute ambition and commitment.
301 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.