Group set up to fight ongoing Downe cuts

Group set up to fight ongoing Downe cuts

19 November 2014

A MAJOR community campaign opposing a raft of service cuts at the Downe Hospital is being organised by health campaigners.

The Down Community Health Committee has set up a special group to oversee the organisation of the protest which is part of a significant new campaign in the battle to retain frontline service provision in Downpatrick.

Last Saturday, campaigners took part in a white line protest in the centre of the town in response to a series of cuts announced by the South Eastern Trust which has been ordered to save £5m before the end of the financial year.

On Monday, the cuts imposed at the Downe and at other hospitals across the Province were debated at the Assembly. And late yesterday afternoon, Health Minister Jim Wells met a delegation to discuss the closure of nine beds and the merger of the Downpatrick hospital’s coronary care unit with a medical ward.

The delegation included South Down MP Margaret Ritchie and Eamonn McGrady, the chairman of the Down Community Health Committee. Both also raised concerns about the drastic scaling back of elective surgery at the Downe and the slashing of domiciliary care packages — which mainly support the elderly to live at home — by a third.

Next week, the South Eastern Trust Board meets at the Downshire Hospital’s Great Hall in Downpatrick, with campaigners urging local people to attend the event.

Those opposed to the latest cuts in service provision at the beleaguered hospital have been encouraged to seek speaking rights at the Trust Board meeting so its members “can hear the voices of the ordinary people of the district” concerned about the future of their hospital.

The flurry of activity in response to the cuts at the Downe — which health chiefs insist are temporary —began last week with a meeting of the Down Community Health Committee in Downpatrick.

Campaigners were joined by Downe Hospital staff, district nurses, senior trade union officials and concerned members of the public who pledged to work together to oppose the latest round of cuts.

The health group’s chairman said people are fighting for the survival of a properly functioning hospital in Downpatrick, with Mr. McGrady declaring:

“We all know what we need to do.”

He hopes people across the district will play a key role in the renewed campaign, organising protest groups in their respective areas to energise further support. Mr. McGrady issued a reminder that the renewed campaign is not just fighting for hospital services, but for those many people in the community rely heavily upon, in particular, domicilary care.

“It is hard to believe we find ourselves back in this position, fighting another rearguard action in the face of considerable cuts about which we had no prior warning. People were very shocked when they heard of the significant cuts targeted at the Downe,” declared Mr. McGrady.

“Cuts to A&E provision at the hospital imposed at the start of the year were labelled ‘temporary’ and are still in place so we are worried when told the latest cuts at the Downe are also ‘temporary.’”

Mr. McGrady said he has no doubt the community will not be found wanting in the fight to oppose the latest cuts and thanked those who took part in a silent protest — organised at short notice — outside the Downpatrick hospital within hours of the latest cuts being announced and “another horror story visited upon the local community.”

He continued: “People gathered at the hospital as a gesture of solidarity with all the staff at the Downe and in protest at what was being proposed. Since the protest, many actions have been taken in the background, with people doing their best to see what can be done to protect and secure services.

“It’s a characteristic of the people of this district that whenever we find ourselves under threat, the impossible becomes possible, with the community uniting with a resolve which is not rivalled in any part of the North. It’s essential everyone across the district, in every town and village, every community group and organisation now come to the fore to reject what is proposed for our hospital.”

Mr. McGrady said the reduction of bed numbers at the Downe leaves the hospital no bigger than some of the district’s private nursing homes and warning that in a real sense, “the enhanced local hospital disappears.” He said the people of the district want the enhanced local hospital they need, deserve and were promised.

He added: “We will all fight these latest proposals as vigorously as we can. It’s important the community is engaged and stays in engaged. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose.

“We don’t need a polyclinic or a building used a health centre. Downpatrick needs a properly functioning local hospital and that is what we demand and expect. If there are to be spending cuts they should be on administration and bureaucracy. Frontline services must be protected.”