Member's statement: Rural Healthcare: 'Delivering Rural Health and Care in a New Ireland' Report
Member's statement by Miss Áine Murphy on .
- MLA
- Miss Áine Murphy
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 26 January 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Rural Healthcare: 'Delivering Rural Health and Care in a New Ireland' Report
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5340167
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the publication of the report 'Delivering Rural Health and Care in a New Ireland'. The report reflects the important discussion held in Enniskillen on the challenges faced by people in Enniskillen, Tyrone and across our border regions in accessing Health and Social Care services. For border communities, the conversation about healthcare is not abstract. It is shaped by distance, rural isolation and services that, too often, are stretched to breaking point.
Nowhere is that reality felt more clearly than at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH). The SWAH is not just a hospital; it is a vital lifeline for the people and communities of Fermanagh, yet chronic challenges in workforce recruitment and retention, along with ongoing uncertainty about future provision, have left people anxious about whether the care and treatment that they need will be available.
We have seen the loss of services disproportionately impacting on our rural communities. Long journeys, poor transport links, the absence of adequate ambulance cover and delayed care can mean the difference between early intervention and crisis. If we are to be serious about equality of access to healthcare, the SWAH must be properly staffed, properly resourced and recognised as essential infrastructure for the entire region. However, the pressures do not stop at our hospital doors. In Fermanagh, we know all too well how difficult it has become to access GP services. Practices are struggling to recruit and retain doctors, patient lists are growing and appointment systems are not fit for purpose. For many people, particularly our older residents and those living with chronic illnesses, even getting an appointment can be a challenge. When access to primary care is limited, illness goes untreated, conditions worsen and more people end up in hospital. Alongside that, we cannot ignore the crisis in our social care system. Across Fermanagh and Tyrone, families are doing extraordinary work in caring for their loved ones, often with minimal support. Home care packages are delayed or reduced, carers are underpaid and overstretched and, too often, people are left in hospital beds, not because they are unfit for discharge but simply because the care that they need at home is not available. That is unfair to patients, unfair to families and unsustainable for our health service. The report rightly highlights that, on a small island with just over seven million people, running two entirely separate health systems makes little to no sense, particularly for our rural and border communities. Indeed, when the South West Acute Hospital was commissioned, it was always envisaged that the uncommissioned theatre and other clinical areas would be developed for use on a cross-border basis. An all-island approach to workforce planning, specialist service provision and rural health delivery would transform outcomes for communities such as ours, but only if is rooted in local communities and firmly focused on free public care. I encourage Members and the wider public to engage with the report. The debate is about the future, but it is also about the here and now.
501 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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