Calls are being made for a new, island‑wide review of health services that would plan hospitals and staffing on an all‑Ireland basis, with Daisy Hill in Newry seen as a natural cross‑border hub on the Belfast–Dublin corridor.
The proposal follows Sunday’s major rally in Newry to defend maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital – held on the tenth anniversary of the Bengoa Report, which launched Stormont’s healthcare “transformation” agenda.
Aontú’s Newry and Armagh representative Roisín Mulgrew, who is a member of the SOS Daisy Hill committee, said the time had come to move beyond planning health solely within the “six‑county” system.
She said: “People travelled from across Newry, Counties Armagh, Down and Louth because they understand something that seems to have been lost in Stormont: Daisy Hill is not simply a hospital serving one town. It is a vital hospital for an entire border region.”
Marking the Bengoa anniversary, she added: “A decade after Stormont embarked on its programme of health transformation, thousands of people were on the streets of Newry fighting to protect maternity services at Daisy Hill. That should tell us something about how that vision of transformation has worked for communities like ours.”
Ms Mulgrew argued that any serious reform of health now needs to start with patients and geography, rather than existing political boundaries.
“We need an all‑Ireland, clinically led review of healthcare provision, examining hospitals, staffing, emergency care, maternity services and patient access across the island,” she said.
“It must recognise Newry’s central position between Belfast and Dublin and the potential for genuine cross‑border cooperation.
“Of course healthcare needs reform. Nobody is suggesting that we preserve every failing aspect of the existing system. But reform must begin with the needs of patients and communities, not with an assumption that services must be organised within the boundaries of the northern state.”
Highlighting Daisy Hill’s catchment area, she said the hospital serves “communities in south Armagh, south Down and Newry, with neighbouring communities across the border in Louth and Monaghan. Yet our health services are planned as though the border marks the edge of the world.”
She was critical of how all the main parties approached the Bengoa process in 2016, saying some accepted a framework “designed around the healthcare system of the North” rather than pushing for an all‑Ireland vision.
“I do not believe they set out to damage hospitals like Daisy Hill,” she said. “I believe they were persuaded by the ‘experts’, the impressive reports, the language of transformation and the pressure to appear responsible. They accepted the boundaries of the system as the boundaries of the solution.
“Because the fundamental question should have been asked ten years ago: why are we planning the future of healthcare for six counties when we should be planning it for the whole island?”
While calling for a long‑term all‑Ireland review, Ms Mulgrew said there are urgent decisions needed now to safeguard Daisy Hill’s services.
“In the meantime, the immediate priority is clear. The Health Minister and Southern Trust must exhaust every option to recruit and retain the staff needed to protect maternity services at Daisy Hill,” she said.
“We should also be working towards restoring emergency general surgery and strengthening Daisy Hill as a fully functioning acute hospital.”
Reflecting on Sunday’s demonstration, she added: “Ten years ago, Stormont promised transformation. On Sunday, the people of Newry demanded something much more basic: the right to have their babies born in their own hospital.
“We do not need another ten years of planning healthcare around partition. We need to start planning healthcare around the people of Ireland.”
