Debate contribution: Maternity and Children’s Hospital: Delays

Debate contribution by Mr Danny Donnelly on 26 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Danny Donnelly

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

26 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Maternity and Children’s Hospital: Delays

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4677403

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion, and I thank my DUP colleagues for tabling it. I am sure that all Members will agree with the key points that the motion raises, particularly the concern that we have seen little progress on reducing waiting lists, which remain the longest in Europe. On 30 June 2024, the median waiting time for an inpatient or day case admission was 47·6 weeks, with over 52,000 people awaiting admission. Those numbers may be lower than the peak levels that we saw during the pandemic, but they are still unacceptably high. That cannot be solved simply through additional funding: fundamental transformation of our hospital network is required. To an extent, I welcome the Minister of Health's recently published framework, 'Hospitals: creating a network for better outcomes' as an early step towards that necessary transformation.

However, I share the concerns expressed in the motion that the framework lacks detail. Given the years that we have already lost in this and the previous mandate, we cannot afford further delay. We all know the pressures that our health service is under, and we know that people in our families, in our communities and across Northern Ireland are suffering.

It is extremely concerning that the opening of the new maternity building at the Royal Victoria site has been delayed over water contamination issues and that the construction of the new children's hospital on the same site will not begin until next year at the earliest, meaning that it will likely not be open until after 2030 — more than a decade later than anticipated. It is essential that the Department works with the Belfast Trust to urgently resolve the contamination of the water system, which, if not addressed, would represent a significant public health risk. It is right that the hospital is not opened until it is clinically safe to do so. We must learn from the mistakes to ensure that those failings are not repeated and, in particular, that we do not see such lengthy delays in future hospital projects. It is for that reason that we support the call for an inquiry into the handling of the maternity and children's hospital project to date. Those facilities, when finally opened, will be state of the art and will bring huge benefits to families across Northern Ireland. However, it is important to address one issue with the motion. The first line of the motion states:

"That this Assembly deplores the lack of progress, and action, towards transforming our health service since the restoration of the Executive".

I would prefer it to read:

"That this Assembly deplores the lack of progress, and action, towards transforming our health service, a consequence of the failure to appoint a Health Minister and an Executive for two years, in addition to the previous shutdown of these institutions for three years".

While we would obviously like the Health Minister to do more on those issues, he is limited by the loss of 40% of this mandate and nearly 60% of the previous one. I ask the Members who tabled the motion to consider the damage done by their party's previous boycott of the Assembly and the Executive and to commit to reforming these institutions to ensure that one party cannot walk away again and leave our health service without any leadership.

Yes, certainly. As has been mentioned, the costs have spiralled out of control. Clearly, there are serious questions about the process by which the water infrastructure was checked and cleared prior to handover to the trust. We need to understand how the process works. It is right that the Health Committee gets the opportunity to re-examine that and question those involved. We, in Alliance, are happy to support the motion. We encourage the Health Minister to prioritise the completion of the maternity and children's hospital project and to do what he can to resolve the water problems at the site in order to ensure its completion.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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