Health Minister Robbie Butler signals 24/7 stroke treatment expansion and demands action on staff pay

Health Minister Robbie Butler Speaking at today’s Ulster Unionist Party conference

Saturday 26 September 2026

Health Minister Robbie Butler has signalled that an expansion of Northern Ireland’s life-saving thrombectomy service is moving closer, telling the Ulster Unionist Party conference that the case for providing the specialist stroke treatment 24 hours a day, seven days a week “has been made”.

Mr Butler, who took over the Department of Health just over five weeks ago, also used his first UUP conference speech as Health Minister to put pressure on Executive colleagues over the outstanding health service pay award and to insist he will not accept “managed decline” in the health service.

24-hour stroke treatment

Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Belfast on Saturday, Mr Butler highlighted the campaign led by stroke survivor Clodagh Dunlop and others for round-the-clock access to thrombectomy.

Thrombectomy is a specialist procedure in which a blood clot is mechanically removed from a blood vessel in the brain following certain types of stroke. Previous Department of Health estimates indicated that a 24/7 service would require just over £5 million in recurrent funding and could enable up to 160 additional procedures each year.

Mr Butler told delegates:

“When somebody suffers a stroke, time matters. Getting the right patient to specialist treatment quickly can make the difference between dependence and independence, between somebody getting home to their family and facing a very different future.

“The case has been made. Now it is time to deliver. This Party supports the expansion of this critical service and it’s going to happen. In the Elective Care Framework published in July this year we gave that firm commitment. So, watch this space for the days and weeks ahead.

“Clodagh, you and many others have pursued this with extraordinary determination. You and others, through your tenacity, will have saved lives.”

The Department’s July 2026 Elective Care Framework Funding and Implementation Plan is published as part of its programme to tackle Northern Ireland’s waiting-list backlog and reform elective services.

Waiting lists moving but remain too long

The Minister also pointed to recent reductions in some of Northern Ireland’s longest waiting times, while acknowledging that the overall position remains unacceptable.

He said:

“Since March of this year alone, the number of people waiting the longest length of times for an outpatient appointment has fallen by more than 15,000, an 18% reduction.

“For inpatient and day case treatment, the number projected to wait more than four years has fallen by 26%.

“Those waits remain far too long, but they are moving in the right direction.”

The figures are consistent with information Mr Butler gave the Assembly earlier this week. He said more than 52,000 additional assessments and treatments had been delivered between April and July through the £85 million waiting list initiative, while almost 5,500 additional primary-care elective procedures were delivered between April and August through a separate £80 million funding stream.

The Minister said the Regional Day Procedure Centre at Lagan Valley demonstrated how services could be reorganised to get more patients treated, while community-based gynaecology services showed how appropriate care could be delivered closer to patients’ homes.

Service changes must be backed by evidence

Mr Butler also addressed the politically difficult issue of hospital reconfiguration, following a turbulent first few weeks in the job and concerns this week over maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital.

He said:

“I will not defend the status quo simply because change is difficult. But nor will I sign off on change simply because somebody tells me it is inevitable.

“I have listened to clinicians, staff, patients, campaigners and local representatives. Where change is clinically necessary and produces better outcomes, I will support it. Where the evidence isn’t there, I will challenge it.”

That approach comes after Mr Butler announced an independent expert reconfiguration committee earlier this month to advise on major or controversial proposals for permanent changes to health and social care services.

Mr Butler became Health Minister on 20 August after Mike Nesbitt resigned following a dispute with UUP leader Jon Burrows over the proposed centralisation of emergency general surgery services at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine.

Pressure on Executive over health pay

One of the Minister’s strongest interventions was reserved for the outstanding pay award for health service workers.

Mr Butler said:

“And I think it’s frankly outrageous that our health service staff are still waiting for this year’s pay award.

“They have waited long enough. The decision is before the Executive. Mike did everything he could, and I have continued that work, to persuade Executive colleagues to approve it and get that money into the pay packets of our health service staff.

“Warm words don’t pay the bills. I want this resolved, and I want it resolved quickly.”

The delay remains a live issue, with health professional representatives continuing to press for implementation of outstanding pay arrangements.

Cancer, mental health and care closer to home

Looking beyond hospitals, Mr Butler said reform would require stronger primary care, improved social care and more treatment being provided in people’s homes and communities.

He also pledged a greater emphasis on cancer prevention and earlier diagnosis, telling delegates that cancer had touched his own family and promising further changes before the end of the current Assembly mandate.

Mental health would also remain a priority, he said, arguing that preventing people from reaching the point where they require hospital admission should itself be regarded as an important health service outcome.

“Sometimes the best hospital outcome is the admission that never has to happen. And sometimes the most important waiting list is the one somebody never has to join,” he said.

Judge me on the outcomes

Mr Butler, a Lagan Valley MLA since 2016, previously spent 16 years with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and four years with the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

Reflecting on his first weeks in one of Stormont’s most challenging departments, he said the public was less interested in how busy government appeared than in what it actually delivered.

“But I didn’t take this job to manage an inbox. I took it to deliver,” he told the conference.

He concluded by setting the measure against which he believes his tenure should ultimately be assessed:

“So when my time as Health Minister eventually comes to an end, judge me on the outcomes.

“Crucially, did we leave our health service stronger than we found it?

“That is the test that matters. Hope isn’t pretending things are better than they are. It is believing they can be better and then doing something about it.”