11th December 2025
The Southern Trust was delighted to welcome Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to Daisy Hill Hospital on Wednesday to see how the team are helping to reduce Northern Ireland’s waiting lists for planned surgery.
The Minister visited the main theatre complex, the Elective Overnight Stay Centre, the state-of-the art dedicated paediatric theatre and the recovery ward on the sixth floor where he met 11 year old Rory Boyle from Middletown who was recovering from a tonsillectomy.
He paid tribute to busy hospital staff and heard first-hand how they are working hard to improve services and outcomes for their patients.
Dr Raymond McKee, Southern Trust Divisional Medical Director of Anaesthetics, Theatres and Intensive Care said:
“As clinicians, it is frustrating to see patients waiting much longer than necessary for their procedures, so we are determined to play our part in the transformation agenda.
“We have a really enthusiastic and committed surgical team at Daisy Hill Hospital and right across the Southern Trust, continually striving to innovate, improve and develop services and keen to work with colleagues regionally, to tackle unacceptable waiting lists across Northern Ireland.
“We were delighted to welcome the Minister to Daisy Hill to show him our excellent theatre facilities and show him how colleagues, right across the hospital have been working together to increase elective capacity and ensure that as many people as possible can have their surgeries.”
Read more here: Minister praises elective progress