HOSPITAL campaign groups are absolutely right – but they may not like where their argument leads them.

As The Irish News reported on Monday, campaigners for Northern Ireland’s four smaller hospitals - Daisy Hill, Downe, Causeway and the South West Acute - have joined forces to call on the Executive to stop “removal and non-restoration” of services.

In a letter sent to each minister, they argue that reorganising services “is not a matter for the health minister alone”.

It raises issues of “roads, transport, rural needs, family finances and the future of our communities”.

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The campaigners want a cross-departmental working group set up so change is planned across all these dimensions.

As they point out, the Executive is required by law to consider rural needs and to collectively agree decisions that are significant, controversial or multi-departmental.

However, the Executive has already collectively agreed to health reform under the Bengoa Report. Its subtitle – “Systems Not Structures” – acknowledges services will be centralised, even if hospitals stay open.

Consideration of rural needs is the subject of important legal arguments, including an application for a judicial review over the loss of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute in Enniskillen.

In Coleraine, the........

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