After 20 years Roisin ready to take to the streets again

After 20 years Roisin ready to take to the streets again

28 January 2015

DOWNPATRICK woman Roisin Polly comes from a family closely associated with health care.

She is acutely aware of the need for the Downe Hospital not only to be retained, but deliver the services the people of the area were promised.

Roisin, who is planning to take part in the Love the Downe rally next month, is no stranger to public protests in support of the Downpatrick hospital.

In the early 1990s, while home on holiday from England where she was living at the time, she took part in two massive public rallies in Downpatrick and Newcastle.

Several decades later, Roisin is preparing to take to the streets again in support of her hospital and has appealed to everyone in the Down area to get involved.

Roisin admits that having taken part in previous rallies which paved the way for the opening of the new Downe in 2009, she never thought “people power” would be required ever again.

She is also concerned about the implications for staff after service cuts at the Downe and their redeployment to other hospitals. The Downpatrick woman said redeploying staff has implications for the local economy.

Roisin continued: “I took part in the previous rallies while back home on holiday because the hospital is an issue that matters to me. Given my family’s close association with healthcare in the Downpatrick area and my awareness of the importance of having access to local hospital I willingly took part.

“In a way, things have come full circle because here we are again taking to the streets in support of our hospital. I felt strongly enough all those years ago to get involved in campaigning with the people of the district and feel exactly the same again now.”

Roisin said her message to people contemplating taking part in the February 14 rally is a very simple one — you have to be there.

She continued: “We need people to mobilise in their thousands to show the politicians and decision makers that we will not be beaten. I am an advocate of people power and firmly believe it makes those in authority sit up and take notice.”

A member of the Russell Gaelic Union in Downpatrick, Roisin said it’s vital every sporting organisation across the district is represented at next month’s rally.

Having taken members of her own family to hospitals in Belfast when they were ill with some requiring nothing more than IV fluids and antibiotics, Roisin said the fact she left Downpatrick, which has a hospital, to travel to the city was “absurd.”

She asked: “Why will health administrators not allow procedures like this to be carried out at the Downe, easing the pressure on the main Belfast hospitals? The Downpatrick hospital can ease the pressure at other hospitals but administrators are not allowing this to happen.”

Roisin said her reasons for taking to the streets along with thousands of others all those years ago are as valid today as they were then.

“I know people who are driven past the Downe to be treated in hospitals in Belfast. That should not be happening. The Downe should be dealing with routine issues and procedures.

“I and many others believe the Downe is not being utilised to its full potential and that needs to change. Why can people not have their IV drips put in at the Downe? Why must they have to travel to Belfast?” she asked.

As the February 14 rally draws near Roisin added: “People need to stand up. We have to keep the Downe open, not just for the current generation but future generations. Mums and their babies must take part in the rally.

“The decision makers will sit up and take note if there are thousands of people taking part in next month’s rally. There is really no excuse not to be there. The rally is about the decision makers and the politicians listening to the people, not the people listening to the decision makers and the politicians.”