Debate contribution: Winter Preparedness Plan

Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on 10 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Colm Gildernew

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Winter Preparedness Plan

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5225446

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I am very pleased to follow the debate and wind up for my party on the amendment. Órlaithí has already outlined how the Executive have worked successfully to create the conditions for a pay deal for health and social care staff. I will not reiterate that in detail, but I will focus on what that now means in practice for staff and patients. For too long, health workers have lived with uncertainty about their pay, staffing levels on wards and whether the system around them will hold up when the winter pressures hit. The agreement that has now been reached and accepted by the unions gives much-needed certainty on pay. That is welcome, and it matters not just to staff but to their families and for paying their mortgages and household bills. Pay certainty has to be matched by certainty in planning. The Minister has said that winter preparations have been ongoing throughout the year. In that case, people are entitled to see a plan being rolled out that they can recognise in their own experience when they walk into an emergency department, ring for an ambulance or, indeed, start a shift. When we talk about winter pressures, it can sound abstract, but for our constituents, it means very real situations. It is the older person who is perhaps reluctant to ring 999 because they do not want to be an extra burden on the system. It is the parent with a sick child who sits for hours in a crowded waiting room, not knowing when they will be seen, and it is the nurse finishing a 12-hour shift, staying on because there is simply no one to hand over to. A serious winter plan has to speak to all those realities. That means a clear pathway so that people can get help in the community before they end up in A&E, properly joined-up arrangements so that someone who is medically ready to go home is not stuck on a ward for days waiting on a care package, and honest and transparent information about where the pressures are and what is being done. As the Minister said, prevention has to be front and centre, and people who are eligible for vaccines need straightforward ways to get those in communities, workplaces and settings that suit them, and the staff need to be supported to take up the vaccinations. On the pay award, the reality is that the Executive have created the space for that settlement. Every Department is certainly under pressure, and every Minister could certainly use more money. We cannot, however, ignore the harm that industrial action would have caused if those issues had not been addressed. Staff would have been forced on to picket lines, patients would have waited longer for treatment and families would have been under increased pressure. We will continue to challenge the British Government's austerity agenda. The Executive have helped to secure the pay award, prioritised health in every monitoring round and given the Department of Health a record budget. The focus now needs to be on delivery, and we need to see a plan that makes a real difference during the coming winter and supports staff and patients.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:45 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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