Member's statement: Downe Hospital: Endoscopy Services
Member's statement by Mr Colin McGrath on .
- MLA
- Mr Colin McGrath
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 9 April 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Downe Hospital: Endoscopy Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4481802
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I want to discuss my concern about the removal of the unit for the cleansing of endoscopy equipment at the Downe Hospital. I will go right from the start, because some critics will jump in to say that we are against transformation or we will potentially be accused of engaging in parish pump politics, and I have a letter here from the chief executive that states that the unit is being removed because of efficiencies and not because of any wider transformation programme. I do not think that it could be stated that a single change to an isolated service in order to improve efficiency is being done for the purpose of transformation. I just wanted to put that out there at the beginning.
Staff at that location in the Downe are absolutely hurt. They are hurt because they deliver the service in such a top-class way that they have an accreditation for it that staff at the Ulster Hospital — the service is being moved there — do not have. It is a bit difficult to understand why you would take a really good service that is working well and move it to somewhere else where the standard is at a different level. Previously, the MO of the trust — I am clear that this does not refer to the current chief executive — was so transparent that it was embarrassing. The trust took the decision to completely run down a service and then, after a year or two, to review the service provision and close down the service that had been run down, saying, "It's because it is run down". I worry that the trust is removing the ability to clean the materials and the utensils, taking that service away, and, in a few years' time, if it reviews the service provision, it will say that, because that service is not there, it has to close it down. I want it recorded in Hansard, so that we can see that and that I stated that. If that is a consideration in the future, we will have this statement to refer to. The staff at the Downe, the members of the Downe community health committee, which met about this last night, and all the elected representatives in the area sing from the same hymn sheet. We all shout the same thing, which is that the Downe Hospital can do so much more. It wants to contribute to addressing the waiting lists and to help. It wants to contribute to service delivery. It wants to play its part. The staff want to do that, and all the elected representatives in the area want to support that. I wanted to make that statement, and I hope that, in the future, we see additional services at the Downe.
466 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.93).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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