Centralising maternity services is putting unsafe pressure on hospitals and must not be repeated at Daisy Hill, Aontú’s Róisín Mulgrew has warned.
The Newry and Armagh representative says new figures from Causeway Hospital – where births were removed in 2023 – should be a “warning, not a blueprint” for plans to move more mothers from Daisy Hill to Craigavon Area Hospital.
“When births were removed from Causeway in 2023, women were transferred principally to Antrim Area Hospital,” she said.
“The Department of Health said the change would provide safe, consistent and sustainable care. The Northern Trust said it was ‘safe and sustainable’.
“Now information obtained by SOS Causeway from the Northern Trust paints a concerning picture of the damage wrought by moving maternity services.”
Ms Mulgrew said the Causeway figures show sickness absence within maternity services topping 42,000 hours in 2022 and rising to more than 49,000 hours in 2025, with the service “frequently” needing between 50 and 90 extra staff shifts every month just to maintain safe staffing levels.
“The campaign highlighted thousands of incident reports submitted by maternity staff since 2022, alongside serious concerns around maternal health outcomes,” she added.
“We should be learning from what has happened elsewhere, not repeating the same centralisation and expecting a different result.”
The Aontú representative said proposals that mothers who would normally give birth at Daisy Hill could instead be directed to Craigavon fail to deal with the underlying problem.
“Moving mothers and babies from one hospital to another does not make the demand disappear – it transfers it elsewhere,” she said.
“Patient safety must come first – at Daisy Hill and at Craigavon. I cannot accept that centralisation is automatically the safer answer.
“The answer to staffing shortages at Daisy Hill is an urgent plan to recruit, retain and secure the medical cover necessary to provide maternity care in Newry.”
Highlighting the large rural and border area served by Daisy Hill, Ms Mulgrew said any further erosion of services would hit communities from south Armagh and beyond.
“This is particularly important for the large rural and border population Daisy Hill serves,” she said.
“A woman in labour in Forkhill or Cullaville cannot be treated as a number on a spreadsheet.”
Aontú has launched a petition calling for births and inpatient maternity services to be protected at Daisy Hill, amid fears that any “temporary” change could quickly become permanent.
“We know how easily something presented as temporary can become permanent,” Ms Mulgrew said.
“I would encourage everyone who wants to see babies continue to be born at Daisy Hill to sign it and make their voice heard.
“The Health Minister and Southern Trust need to listen to communities in both Newry and Causeway. They cannot keep stripping services from local hospitals, concentrating them elsewhere and calling that transformation.
“Causeway should be a warning, not a blueprint. We will fight to ensure that future generations of babies can still be born at Daisy Hill.”
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