Member's statement: Daisy Hill Hospital: Maternity Services
Member's statement by Ms Aoife Finnegan on .
- MLA
- Ms Aoife Finnegan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Daisy Hill Hospital: Maternity Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795321
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise today to again discuss the serious concerns about maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital. What frustrates me most is that front-line staff have been raising concerns for well over a year about the direction of travel for maternity services at Daisy Hill. Those people are working on the ground every day, and they see the challenges and feel the pressures building. They have repeatedly expressed their fears about the future of the services, yet, here we are, facing the very situation that they feared. How can the trust or the Department of Health expect to maintain public confidence when staff have been raising those concerns for so long? I attended the public meeting at the Canal Court Hotel that was organised by UNISON and Save Our Services Daisy Hill. I heard the people. There were nurses, healthcare workers, expectant mothers and fathers and families expressing their frustration and genuine upset and rightly so. Those people are the experts. Their voices should be at the centre of the decision-making, and they deserve to see evidence that their concerns are being acted on. As a woman from south Armagh whose three children were delivered in Daisy Hill, I know how important those services are to rural families and to the wider Newry, south Armagh and south Down area. They are particularly important for rural families, because, for them, distance is already a challenge, so travelling further while in labour or in an obstetrics emergency raises real concern about accessibility and patient safety. We must consider the wider implications. Staff are asking, "If the consultant staffing issues cannot be resolved, what impact could that have on the special baby care unit, gynaecology and early pregnancy care, and can Craigavon hospital safely accommodate additional mothers and babies?". I acknowledge the exceptional staff at Daisy Hill, who have gone above and beyond to sustain the services. I urge everybody to get out to the rally in Newry on 25 October. People should come out and represent and show what Daisy Hill means to them.
341 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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