MLAS SLAM ’UNACCEPTABLE’ 28 MONTH DELAY FOR BELFAST MATERNITY HOSPITAL

A further 28 months of potential delays to Belfast’s long-awaited new maternity hospital has been called “totally unacceptable.”

The facility in the Royal Victoria site was supposed to open 10 years ago at a cost of £52m, but the discovery of harmful pseudomonas bacteria has increased the estimate to £97m.

Updating the Stormont Assembly on Monday, the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said the Belfast Trust had completed a review of three potential options to fix the problem.

With the Trust preferring option three, Mr Nesbitt said this would likely take an extra 28 months.

 “I can’t gild this lily, I can’t soften this,” he said.

“None of the three options can be guaranteed to solve the problem. None of them.

“The third option is to rip everything out in terms of the waterworks and start again and that’s going to take even longer.”

Mr Nesbitt has now asked for the advice of an external expert.

“I am far from finished on this, but there’s nothing good to say except it is a magnificent facility that is not in use,” he said.

Alliance MLA Danny Donnelly called it “utterly unacceptable” that women would now have to wait over two years to give birth in an “already-built hospital” that should have opened 10 years ago.

“The new maternity unit was originally proposed in 1999, and with these extended delays babies who were born then are now likely to have children of their own,” he said.

Stating it created “real and serious concerns” about project management and accountability from the department, he urged the minister to make an urgent decision on the way forward.

The SDLP’s Colin McGrath called the update “a bitter blow” to families across Northern Ireland.

“It is utterly unacceptable that a state-of-the-art maternity hospital continues to sit unused while expectant mothers are left waiting and wondering.”

He welcomed plans to appoint an independent expert, saying increased scrutiny of health trusts was long overdue.

Earlier this year, work commenced on a new children’s hospital at the Royal site.

Originally intended to open in July 2020 at a cost of £223m, it is now expected to open in 2030 at a considerably higher cost of £590m.

Mr Nesbitt told MLAs that work on this project was proceeding on time and within budget, but acknowledged it was still at the very early stages.

The DUP MLA Diane Dodds asked about a recent fire safety inspection at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

He said the audit from the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service on June 4 found a “substantial risk” at wards four and seven, with a score falling into the enforcement category.

With follow up meetings taking place to help the Trust make the necessary changes, he said: “I accept the point that this does nothing to restore public and political confidence in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.”

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw asked for progress on creating a new mother and baby mental health unit at Belfast City Hospital.

Mr Nesbitt said a business case from the Belfast Trust was progressing and that his department had committed to interim measures of community-based perinatal mental health services.

He also shared that his wife “could have used that service 30 years ago,” having suffered from antenatal depression.

“What happened from when my son was born was so far from ideal it has stuck with us 30 years on,” he said.

“Until we get the mother and baby unit, we’re not going to be in the position we want to be in.”

2025-06-17T15:31:10Z