Northern Ireland to Name New Health Minister Thursday
Northern Ireland is to get a new health minister on Thursday, replacing Mike Nesbitt, after a row over the withdrawal of emergency surgery from Causeway Hospital. Jon Burrows, of the Ulster Unionists, said the job needed someone with the “determination to do difficult things”. The change comes as the health service in Northern Ireland struggles with some of the longest waiting lists in the UK.
The reshuffle follows sustained anger over the downgrading of services at Causeway Hospital, one of a series of painful decisions forced by a health system that is chronically underfunded and overstretched. Northern Ireland’s waiting lists are proportionally the worst in the United Kingdom, and successive ministers have found the politics of closing or centralising services almost impossible, with every change resisted locally. Installing a new minister signals a desire for fresh momentum, but the underlying problems — money, workforce and a divided Executive — will not shift with a change of face. Watch who is appointed and whether they can carry reforms the last minister could not.