Causeway Hospital to no longer faciliate births from mid-July as staffing crisis continues

A major restructuring of maternity services within the Northern Trust will see all births permanently stopped at Causeway Hospital from July.

Proposals to move the service to Antrim Area Hospital have now been approved by permanent secretary Peter May, in the absence of a health minister.

Staffing difficulties and low birth rates in the area left maternity services at the Coleraine hospital "vulnerable and unsustainable," the Northern Trust said.

This is the latest change to health service provisions, brought about largely by a staffing crisis. Daisy Hill and South West Acute Hospitals have had to cut services and several GP practices have handed back their contracts due to staffing pressures.

Dr Tom Black of the British Medical Association NI said: "Everyday something worse happens." He added: "I was in Westminster last week giving evidence to the NI Affairs Committee.

"I said we will see further collapses in hospitals, we will see further collapse in General Practice, every month, if not every week.

"The very next day we saw collapses in a hospital and a GP practice.

"It is extraordinary what we are going through."

Dr Black also warned that many medical students are now leaving Northern Ireland to work elsewhere because of the pay and conditions.

Mr Chris Hoo, a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon and a clinical trainer at Kingsbridge Training Academy, said it is "heartbreaking" for staff "not only to see patients suffer unnecessarily, but also to see staff broken by their inability to do something for the patients that we all care for."

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