Debate contribution: Altnagelvin Area Hospital: Emergency Department

Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on 2 June 2026.

MLA: Mr Mike Nesbitt
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 2 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Altnagelvin Area Hospital: Emergency Department
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5584227

Text

I am not aware of specific plans. The Member is right, however. When I took up post, everybody was focusing on the issues at the front door, such as delayed handovers for ambulances and overcrowding in the ED, but the Member is right: the problem is the flow out of the back door. We have to build community capacity. Otherwise, we will not get the flow right. Where are the resources in order to do that, however? The Department currently sits without a budget, but, based on the draft Budget, we have a shortfall of £760 million. That is unprecedented and unmanageable. It means that we cannot do what the Member and I know needs to be done.

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

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