It would seem that the minister has resigned over a dispute with his party leader over the proposed removal of emergency general surgery from the Causeway Hospital . This is only one of the problems that our politicians are so eager to see in the configuration of our rural hospitals. The same battles to save local services are surging in rural areas. Daisy Hill SOS committee are rallying to fight the removal of emergency general surgery and more services for the hospital. The department of health and the board did not even hold an information session in Newry showing a lack of respect for the service users and patients who depend on Daisy Hill.

It’s also important to highlight the work that the SOS committee for South West Hospital in Enniskillen who quite rightly point out that Altnagelvin hospital can not cope under the current situation and the planned changes would destabilise services in both hospitals. Our politicians and health services management know what the problems are yet will not address because it would mean acknowledging that past actions like privatisation of the home care services has created the problem of hospital discharges which has a knock on effect to all sections of our hospital services.

Primary care services the first point of contact for patients and service users are not responsive to patients in a timely manner which results in patients attending already overwhelmed emergency departments. The Workers Party in all our submissions to the proposed health plans have highlighted the need for a real open and transparent discussion with patients, service users, trade unions, and political parties. The piecemeal approach that has been adopted has only resulted in hundreds being poured in the private sector instead of building up in-house capacity to deal with the waiting lists which still has the highest number in any UK Region. It is now time to stop the romance with the private sector and start investing heavily in bringing services back in-house .