NI Rural Hospital Campaigners Demand Service Restoration — SkimNews
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- Four hospital campaign groups — SOAS Fermanagh, SoS Causeway Hospital group, Save Our Services Daisy Hill and the Down Community Health committee — signed a letter of concern to the Northern Ireland Executive calling for a cross-departmental ministerial working group on rural health access and independent rural-needs and equality assessments.
- Donal O'Cofaigh of Save Our Acute Services said rural communities are "second-class citizens" and called for a "presumption of restoration" — a pathway to reinstate services previously removed from rural hospitals without appropriate assessments or scrutiny.
- Specific service removals cited include permanent removal of emergency general surgery (EGS) from Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry in 2024, the possible consolidation of its maternity services to Craigavon Area Hospital from 23 November, permanent suspension of maternity at Causeway Hospital in 2023, and ongoing suspension of EGS at South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen since 2022.
- The Department of Health said "every decision across the health and social care system is taken on the basis of safety and delivery of the best outcomes for all citizens," adding that the minister is "acutely aware" of rural issues.
- Health Minister Mike Nesbitt had been due to rule on EGS at just one Northern Health Trust site (likely removing it from Causeway Hospital), but the proposal stalled after he resigned amid a party dispute, leaving the move without ministerial approval.
- Health Minister Robbie Butler announced in September a new independent expert committee to advise on major or controversial permanent changes to health services, alongside a review of existing guidance on service withdrawal and rural impacts.
- O'Cofaigh warned that forcing residents to travel "long, unsafe distances for emergency care" produces worse health outcomes and is "re-entrenching wider disadvantage," and that "people are already losing their lives."
Why it matters: Stormont now faces organised cross-county pressure from four active campaign groups to embed rural-proofing into health decisions, with the Daisy Hill maternity consolidation date of 23 November and the unresolved Causeway EGS decision both hanging on ministerial direction. If the executive does not establish the working group and accept a presumption of restoration, suspended services at Daisy Hill, South West Acute and Causeway risk becoming permanent removals, locking rural Fermanagh, Newry and Coleraine patients into longer travel for emergency care.
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