No time for new minister to fix health service warns top doctor

Doctors have warned the health service in Northern Ireland does not have the required staff due to an "abject failure of workforce planning", and there is not enough time to make changes before the next election.

Dr Clodagh Corrigan, who is the deputy chair of the British Medical Association, said Northern Ireland "does not have the surgeons and the staff to have all specialities across all sites".

Lagan Valley Ulster Unionist assembly member Robbie Butler was announced as the new health minister on Thursday. This follows the resignation of his party colleague Mike Nesbitt from the post.

An emergency meeting of Stormont's health committee has also taken place to discuss the fall out from Nesbitt's resignation.

Nesbitt announced he was stepping down on Tuesday night amid a row with his party leader Jon Burrows.

It followed a clash over withdrawing emergency general surgery services (EGS) from Causeway Hospital, where Nesbitt said the party leader had "introduced a second red line".

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Corrigan said she understands the concerns and frustrations caused by the closure of Causeway EGS.

When asked if it was the right decision to close FGS at Causeway, she said if the safety outcomes were not "showing what they need to show" and "if the staffing isn't sustainable and viable", then alternative ways of provision needed to be looked at.

"There has been an abject failure of workforce planning over the course of very many years," Corrigan told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"We simply do not have the surgeons and the staff to have all specialities across all sites."

Corrigan added that she "massively fears that going forward we will see a placeholder minister who's not willing to make decisions and not willing to negotiate as we come into the winter months".

Dr Frances O'Hagan said she is worried the new health minister may stall progress in discussions around primary healthcare funding.

She said primary care is "looking down the barrel of an absolute disaster" without support in the next few months.

O'Hagan added that the sector had been "close to getting some active support in this year" prior to Nesbitt stepping down.

"It looks like he was in an impossible situation," she added.

On Wednesday, officials in the health service voiced their support for Nesbitt, saying he had "offered strong political leadership" and had "listened to clinical leaders".

They included the Royal College of Surgeons, NI Confederation for Health and Social Care, the British Medical Association.

Stormont's health committee will convene later with departmental officials, including the department's permanent secretary, following a request from committee's chair, Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan.

McGuigan said the committee needed to know what decisions had to be made by any incoming minister.

Analysis - BBC News NI health correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly:

If you think of what happens in a week in the health service, the number of stories and issues – as health minister they are meant to know the inside out back to front of every issue.

They are supposed to met the unions, clinicians, all the royal colleges, everyone who is involved in those stories and I think that's something that Butler will not have the joy of doing due to the time pressures.

He has a reputation of being very personable, popular and well-liked; but does being nice help you make decisions? And when he's sitting facing the Royal College of Nurses and the general practice – what then?

In an ideal world, the outgoing health minister Nesbitt would have left a letter for Butler saying: 'Here's what I'm leaving, all you have to do is follow my lead, we're of the same party.'

But have they have left in those circumstances? And now in the mix we've got Burrows because of what happened at Causeway Hospital.

So really there are three men in this relationship.

Last week Burrows, who is a North Antrim MLA, told a town hall meeting that he did not support emergency general surgery (EGS) being moved from Causeway Hospital.

The Northern Health Trust previously recommended that EGS should only be provided at one of its hospital sites. The service would move to Antrim.

It is understood the Department of Health (DoH) was still waiting for a final recommendation to come to the minister.

Nesbitt was unable to attend last week's meeting due to a constituency election meeting in Strangford and Burrows attended in his place, where he voiced opposition to the closure of the EGS service.

Last week he said he did not agree with that and would "never agree with it".

However, he stopped short of saying whether or not he would direct Nesbitt not to sign off on the move.

The Northern Trust has said the current model of providing emergency general surgery across two acute sites is becoming "increasingly unsustainable" and surgical colleagues are finding it challenging to provide 24/7 emergency rota cover at both hospitals.

Consultation on the relocating of some surgeries and treatments across Northern Ireland has been ongoing for a number years due to difficulty recruiting staff as well as budget issues.

The Department of Health announced in 2024 that emergency general surgery would be permanently moved from Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry to Craigavon Area Hospital.

Emergency general surgery was suspended temporarily at South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in 2022.

Patrick Mulholland, of health union Nipsa, said he believed measures at Causeway and other hospitals were "cuts by stealth".

"There's a process, the first thing you do is create doubt about the future of the service - when you create the doubt about the future of the service then nobody wants to work there because there's no future in having a job there."

Brian Mullin, who worked in the health service for 36 years, said "you've got to work with the best surgeons, and find out where they are".

"If they can't staff Coleraine, maybe somebody has to look at what the overall evidence is," he told BBC News NI in Coleraine town centre.

"It's a very emotional issue," he said. "Emotionally you would like to have it all here, but you've got to have the best people in the right place."

Eddy Curtis from the SOS Daisy Hill campaign group said there is already "co-operation" between hospital service campaign groups in different areas of Northern Ireland and it is increasing.

"We work hand in hand with SOS Causeway and we've reached out to Fermanagh as well."

"I believe if we get the collective, we'll have a very strong voice, but the scenario is that we need political support."

On the streets of Newry, Sandra McEleron said it is difficult to get GP appointments and she is worried about the loss of hospital services in the city.

"Daisy Hill was always one of the best but they have been let down by Stormont for years and years and moved everything to Craigavon,~" she said.

"Newry is the forgotten city, they call Newry a city but it's more like a dumping ground. If they tried to get the right surgeons, Newry would be as good as Craigavon."

Orlaith Comer said services "were absolutely brilliant when I was having a baby, but afterwards it was minimal.

"I know there are mums with post-partum depression, anxiety and they're left to fend for themselves, which is pretty dire."

In Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, Laura McManus, who runs a pregnancy and postnatal group, said: "I understand that the fallout is from Causeway, but obviously we are steps above and beyond that, we have been dealing with these issues for a long time here with the cut of our emergency services.

"I feel that there is a definitive need for maternity services as well in this area.

"Rurally, I think we have been overlooked."

Another woman from the area, Una, told BBC News NI: "I have personally been waiting for an appointment for the last three years for myself, but there are lots of mummies and children coming in and they always say they have to wait quite a while to get any help."