A coalition of health service campaign groups has challenged the Northern Ireland Executive to ‘treat rural health as a shared responsibility’.

The new grouping is called Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) and is made up of Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) – SWAH, Causeway Hospital SOS Campaign, Save Our Services – Daisy Hill and Down Community Health Committee.

In a joint letter sent to every Executive Minister, Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) say they challenged the treatment of major rural hospital service changes as purely operational matters for individual health trusts or the Department of Health.

In a joint statement, the four campaigns said: “Our communities face the same pattern: vital services are removed or suspended, decisions are described as operational or clinical, and rural people are left to live with the consequences.

Four hospital campaign groups have joined forces for the first time to demand collective action by the Northern Ireland Executive over the removal and non-restoration of vital acute hospital services in rural areas.

placeholder image — Four hospital campaign groups have joined forces for the first time to demand collective action by the Northern Ireland Executive over the removal and non-restoration of vital acute hospital services in rural areas.

“This is not a matter for the Health Minister alone. When patients must travel further for emergency treatment, the consequences involve roads, transport, rural needs, family finances and the future of our communities. Every Executive Minister has a responsibility to consider those consequences.

“We are asking Ministers to stop treating rural hospital services in separate departmental compartments. Decisions with significant cross-departmental consequences must receive the collective scrutiny and agreement required by the Northern Ireland Act and Ministerial Code.

“For a rural patient, access to emergency care cannot be separated from the journey needed to reach it. A service available many miles away is not the same as a service that can be reached safely and in time.

“Rural proofing must happen before decisions are made – not become a paper exercise afterwards. Ministers must consider what happens when one service disappears after another, leaving patients travelling further and families carrying more of the burden.

“Our joint letter calls for independent rural-needs and equality assessments, a cross-departmental ministerial working group on rural health access, and a presumption of restoration where services have been removed without adequate rural proofing, equality assessment or Executive scrutiny.

“We have come together because these are not isolated local disputes. Every Minister receiving this letter must consider what their own department can do.

"Passing the issue back to Health is not an adequate response. Rural lives matter, and protecting timely access to acute hospital services must be a responsibility shared across the Executive.”