The South Belfast MLA stated: “The very fact that we are now unsurprised to see Northern Ireland hospital trainees expressing lower satisfaction rates than elsewhere in the UK should profoundly concern us. We cannot just get used to low ratings; we have to commit ourselves to change and to improvement.
“It is naturally particularly worrying that the South West Acute Hospital ranks in the bottom 20, despite being a relatively new facility. This will concern not only the staff at the hospital in Enniskillen, but also the wider local community.
“Yet again, this reinforces the need for a Health Committee to be in place to scrutinise policy and for an Assembly to be operating to pass legislation, most obviously in this case safe staffing legislation similar to that passed in Scotland which guarantees not only fair pay but also improved conditions for staff.
“The alarm bells are now sounding very loudly. It is long past time that the democratic institutions were back in place tackling the challenges which are clearly immediately in front of us.”