Robbie Butler named Stormont health minister

By Rebecca Black (Press Association)

Urgent issues await Northern Ireland’s new health minister, a senior civil servant has said.

Permanent Secretary Mike Farrar warned there is no time to lose in a major plan to “reset” the health service.

He was speaking to the Stormont Health Committee on Thursday as Robbie Butler was announced as health minister.

Mr Butler was appointed by UUP leader Jon Burrows following the resignation of former minister Mike Nesbitt earlier this week amid a row over a proposal to withdraw emergency general surgery services from the Causeway Hospital, Coleraine.

The committee held an emergency meeting on the issue.

It is also to invite Mr Butler to speak to the committee next week.

The Northern Health Trust previously indicated its preference for emergency general surgery to be located at just one of its sites, Antrim Area Hospital.

On Thursday, Mr Farrar told the committee the process around emergency general surgery services at Causeway Hospital is not yet complete.

He told MLAs that the department has, for a number of years, been looking to ensure that the standards that are set for general surgery across Northern Ireland are in line with best medical practice, are able to meet demand and respond to new technology.

He said a review published in 2024 indicated that the current range of services and where they were provided did not meet those standards.

In response, he said the Northern Trust then looked at their services to meet those standards, and carried out a consultation.

“It’s important to put on the record that no proposals (in relation to Causeway) had been taken at this point to ministers and no decision had been taken,” he told MLAs.

Deputy Secretary Tracey McCaig said she is not prepared to name a date for a decision but suggested they were close.

“We have a number of things to close out, but I can tell you that it’s very advanced and it’s almost at a final position,” she said.

“I know I’ll be able to get to a position I hope on a recommendation timetable soon, but as to what happens after that, that will be out of my control.”

Mr Farrar, who was set to meet Mr Butler at 4pm on Thursday, said staff pay remains a significant issue, as well as a challenging financial position in the absence of a Stormont budget for the year.

“We have a reset agenda which really we cannot afford to lose time on,” he said.

“This is year one of delivering on that plan. We see financial sustainability over a three-year period, but we also know that to do that, you have to manage demand. We have to relieve our hospitals of the pressure they’re under. We have to invest in our community and primary care to be able to do that.

“I don’t believe any of that can wait, because if we lose six months, effectively you are then knocking into the future, not just poorer service quality, but you’re also knocking into the future our ability t live within our means, which is crucial, I think, and is actually playing a big part in the discussions that I think the Executive is having with Treasury about our financial position and the support we need.”

He added: “Then there is a number of issues that the minister will have to pick up that relate to commitments we have made to the Muckamore families, and the people who were subject to the Urology Inquiry about working with families to implement recommendations around safe care, so there is a big agenda there for the minister.

“In terms of has there been any slippage in terms of decisions that might have been taken this week, I don’t believe that there has been anything which has been time- critical.”

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath asked Mr Farrar whether he is confident that conversations with the next minister will not “have to be checked against the party leaders’ view”.

He responded: “Since I’ve come to Northern Ireland I am learning the political narrative and the way that things work. I would be very hopeful that my conversations with the minister are conversations in which we can have advice to help ministers make a decision.

“What a minister then does by way of party is their business, not mine. But I will always give the best advice, and if a party leader of any party asks me for justification for any advice I’ve given to one of their ministers, I’ll be prepared to provide it.”

Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows (left) and Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots MLA (right) with Ulster Unionist MLA Robbie Butler as he signs the pledge of office (Photo by Mark Marlow/PA Wire)