Debate contribution: Cross-border Healthcare

Debate contribution by Ms Liz Kimmins on 18 June 2024.

MLA

Ms Liz Kimmins

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

18 June 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Cross-border Healthcare

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4497016

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for proposing this important motion. It is no secret that Sinn Féin's vision for the future of healthcare is one that encompasses an all-island health service because it makes sense. Yesterday, all parties supported our motion on all-island cancer research. In discussing that, nobody disputed that that makes sense. It is the way in which we need to go. The proposer of the motion mentioned the importance of cross-border, all-island healthcare in reducing the colossal waiting lists in our health system, with people's conditions continually worsening as they languish on waiting lists for not weeks or months but years. We have to think outside the box, which means collaborating with our colleagues across this island and sharing our resource, knowledge and expertise. In more and more conversations with individuals, organisations and professionals, it is being said, "We want to get the best care for people. We want to ensure that they get the best outcomes". I know that the Minister has said that achieving better outcomes for patients is one of his priorities. That is where we need to go, and the motion will help formalise that and emphasise how we work together. As I mentioned in yesterday's debate, the Oireachtas Health Committee will come to Belfast next week, about which I am really excited. It is the first time that we have done that, and that in itself shows that there is appetite for the Assembly Health Committee and the Oireachtas Health Committee to work together. I hope that it is the start of something really progressive and productive. We will meet representatives from the Queen's University Centre for Cancer Research and others to look at the opportunities that exist across the island. We have a small island and a small population overall. Looking at the population in the North, I think that it is equivalent to that of a big city such as Glasgow. The potential of the resource and talent that we have across our island is huge. There is so much that we can do. I am being parochial, but it is not surprising that I should mention my hospital, Daisy Hill, which is the only hospital between Drogheda and Portadown and serves a huge area of Newry, south Armagh, south Down and, indeed, north Leinster. It is ideally placed, as a central location, to provide healthcare on an all-island basis, and, indeed, it already does so. In many cases, for people from the South or other parts of the North, it is the closest hospital when something happens to them. Likewise, there is huge potential for our Ambulance Service, which is increasingly pressurised. I recently spoke to a family who had an emergency situation with a child and were ever so grateful to get any ambulance. We can do a huge amount of work on an all-island basis to ensure that we get resources to people at the right time so that they get the right care. The Member who spoke previously talked about the loss of our workforce. Our health service workforce, as we have said repeatedly in the Chamber since the Assembly was restored, is the underpinning issue to be fixed to ensure that we have the right capacity to deliver services for all our citizens. We are, however, losing our workforce to the South, where there are more attractive jobs and better conditions. The Member referenced Sláintecare. Why do we not pool that resource? Why can we not work together to ensure that we provide really high-class services? That is doable, and it is not all about money. It is something that we can do if there is the will between the two Health Departments. I agree with everything that has been said. We have so much potential because we are a small island, with the maximum distance that anybody would have to travel taking just a couple of hours.

If we work together, we can achieve so much more, and it is certainly something that I support. My party has produced a document on its vision for all-island healthcare, and I hope we can see some of that with the support of the House for this important motion.

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

Assessment

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Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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