Daisy Hill Hospital to Suspend Inpatient Maternity Services on 23 November

What changed

Inpatient maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry will be suspended from 23 November, with births moved to Craigavon Hospital.

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust says it cannot safely staff both hospitals. It needs eight substantive consultant obstetricians but expects to have only two, alongside three locum consultants. Antenatal and postnatal services will continue at Daisy Hill, and Craigavon is expected to handle 1,700 additional births.

Why it matters

This changes where women across Newry, South Down and South Armagh may give birth, with some facing a longer journey to hospital. A midwife-led telephone triage service will help direct women to the right facility, while every woman registering for birth will have a designated midwife. Ambulance crews will also direct unexpected cases to Craigavon or another suitable hospital.

The Trust calls the suspension temporary, but no date has been set for Daisy Hill’s maternity unit to reopen. That makes this more than a short-term timetable change: families and staff are being asked to plan around a service whose future remains unsettled.

A pregnant 40-year-old woman plans to seek a judicial review to delay the move. Until that challenge is resolved, both the implementation date and Craigavon’s ability to absorb the extra births remain live questions.