Edwin Poots: Cancer battle won’t stop me working as Stormont minister

The DUP man was back working from his hospital bed almost immediately following appendix surgery last month, and is determined to do the same when he eventually has his right kidney removed.

“Mentally, I am comfortable about the circumstances I find myself in, my prognosis is good and I believe I will come out the other side ok,” he said.

“Last time I got my iPad into hospital, and started work straight away after I had come out of surgery.

“I would get bored quickly if I didn’t have something to do. I have every intention of getting on with work. If I felt that I wasn’t capable of working, or that it was a problem, I wouldn’t be hanging in there, that would take away from my office and the job I was supposed to be doing.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the job in hand. There are many other personalities who could do the job, I will not be hanging in there if I think I can’t do it. I have every intention of working through.”

There have been some pleasant distractions during this hugely difficult time in the minister’s life.

His son Samuel, who is currently living in Brazil, recently became a father for the first time after his wife gave birth to a baby daughter.

Mr Poots is also awaiting the birth of a second grandchild, with his daughter Anna, who is working for a Christian organisation in South Africa, expecting her first child early next month.

“I have one new grandchild in Brazil and one on the way in South Africa next month, so goodness knows when I will see them for the first time, especially with the new variants of Covid-19 arriving in those countries,” he said.

“We would desperately love to be with them at the earliest point, but that could be four, five or six months away, which is disappointing because everyone wants to nurture their grandchild.”

Health Minister Robin Swann said he was “very sorry to hear about Edwin’s news” and wished him a “full recovery”.

Mr Swann (pictured) stressed that it was “heart-breaking” for him that cancer services here had been “adversely impacted by the pandemic”.

He explained: “In terms of surgery delays, the planning by HSC trusts to manage the pressures on hospital services resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic aims to ensure that there are sufficient intensive care beds for all those who need this care – Covid and non-Covid patients alike. That required specialist staff to be relocated from surgery-related duties.

“These clinical decisions were very distressing and have not been taken lightly. They stem from the surge in Covid cases and the inevitable pressures this brought to our hospitals.

“As I have repeatedly made clear, the best way to protect care for non-Covid patients is to aggressively push down Covid infection rates.

“I can assure everyone that trusts are working very hard to maintain cancer care in so far as that is possible during the current surge.

“I recently announced the establishment of a new regional approach to ensure that any available theatre capacity across Northern Ireland is allocated for those patients most in need of surgery both during surge and as we come out of this surge. We will also utilise as much capacity as possible in the independent sector.

“I deeply regret that anyone has had their surgery postponed or delayed.

“The reality is that we had a serious staffing shortfall in our hospitals for many years. This shortfall has greatly reduced our room for manoeuvre in this pandemic.

“A health service that struggles in normal times is going to suffer particularly badly in a global pandemic of this nature.”

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