Nesbitt says he will not ‘go anywhere near’ closure of hospitals

Stormont’s new Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said he will not be “going anywhere near” the prospect of closing hospitals in Northern Ireland.

Mr Nesbitt told MLAs that he wanted hospitals in the region to become a network, rather than operating in isolation.

Mr Nesbitt recently replaced his Ulster Unionist party colleague Robin Swann as Health Minister.

The party voted against a recent budget passed by the Assembly, with Mr Nesbitt insisting he will not implement cuts that would have a “catastrophic impact” on service delivery within the health service.

Facing his first question time as minister, Mr Nesbitt said reform of the health and social care system was one of his key concerns.

He told MLAs: “I look forward to meeting with Executive colleagues to try and impress upon them some of the issues that are related to the current budget to the department of health and seeing what we can do.

“I want to do what we can with the money we’ve got, it is a lot of money, but the pressures remain.”

Mr Nesbitt was then asked if he would give a commitment over the future of the hospital estate in Northern Ireland.

The minister said: “We will be looking at our entire estate of hospitals and I hope sooner rather than later to be speaking to the House about how we better view each hospital as part of a network rather than an institution operating in isolation.

“Not every hospital will provide every service.”

He added: “It is a question of reorganising and it is a question of reforming but it is not a question of saying I am closing a hospital.

“I have no intention over the next three years of going anywhere near the idea of closing a hospital or reducing that square metreage or square yardage.”