THE fiasco around the new Belfast maternity hospital now stands as a monument to political failure, which has real-world consequences for everyone living in the north.

The whole sorry saga of missed deadlines, eye-watering cost overruns, and a lack of accountability, transparency and oversight, should leave no-one in doubt about the shortcomings in our system of governance.

Due to be completed in 2015, the maternity hospital is already 11 years behind schedule, with construction costs spiralling from £57 million to over £100m.

The Belfast Trust took possession of the five-storey building from the contractors, Graham Bam Healthcare partnership, in March 2024.

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The Trust then commenced what is described as a “clinical commissioning phase”, a process of ensuring a safe transition of the new service.

A number of months later in July 2024, it announced significant delay in opening as high levels of pseudomonas aeruginosa were discovered in the water system.

A pseudomonas infection killed three babies at Belfast’s Royal Jubilee Hospital in 2012.

In 2025, health minister Mike Nesbitt announced that the opening could be further delayed by 28 months due to the dangerous bacteria in the water system.

© The Irish News