Hospital groups in Northern Ireland call for help for rural health services

Four hospital campaign groups have sent a joint "letter of concern" to the Northern Ireland Executive, according to BBC News. The letter asks for a cross-departmental working group on rural health access, which would bring together several government departments to look at the issue.

The campaigners warned that rural communities face the threat of being cut off from timely access to acute (serious or urgent) and other vital hospital services. They said people in these areas already travel long, unsafe distances for emergency care. They have called for independent rural-needs and equality assessments to be carried out.

The groups that signed the letter are Save Our Acute Services, SoS Causeway Hospital, Save Our Services Daisy Hill and the Down Community Health Committee. Donal O'Cofaigh, from Save Our Acute Services, is based in County Fermanagh.

The campaigners also called for a presumption of restoration, which would mean that services removed from rural hospitals without appropriate assessments should be brought back. Several services have already changed in recent years. Emergency general surgery was temporarily suspended at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry in February 2022, and was permanently removed in 2024. Maternity services were permanently suspended at Causeway Hospital in 2023 and moved to Antrim Area Hospital.

Other changes have been proposed or considered. In July 2025, the Western Health and Social Care Trust board agreed to consult on permanently removing emergency general surgery from South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen. That consultation was later closed after the trust agreed to pause and consider. The Northern Health Trust has recommended providing emergency general surgery at just one of its hospital sites. The Southern Health and Social Care Trust has announced possible consolidation of maternity services at Craigavon Area Hospital, which could mean suspending them at Daisy Hill Hospital from 23 November.

The proposal to remove emergency general surgery from Causeway Hospital cannot go ahead without approval from Health Minister Robbie Butler. In 2024, former Health Minister Mike Nesbitt had proposed a new hospital network, with services spread and shared across counties. The proposed network would keep four categories of hospital: area, general, local hospitals and regional centres. Mr Nesbitt later resigned as Health Minister amid a party dispute over the proposal.

In September, Mr Butler said a new independent expert committee would advise him on major or controversial proposals.