You have to listen to us

You have to listen to us

18 January 2017

A CLARION call for the Downe Hospital to play a key role in the future delivery of health care in Northern Ireland was made at a public meeting in Downpatrick last week.

There was standing room only at last Thursday night’s meeting when the some of the most senior Department of Health officials came to hear local views on plans for major changes in Northern Ireland’s health service.

The meeting at Downpatrick Cricket Club was the latest in a series ordered by Health Minister Michelle O’Neill who says she wants local people to be at the centre of the decision-making process in designing and delivering services following the publication last November of two major reports on the future of health and social care.

One was published by Professor Raphael Bengoa and the other by the minister herself. While the Bengoa report makes no mention of hospital closures, it outlines how services should be redesigned to make them fit for the 21st century, placing a renewed focus on prevention and keeping people well, better primary care and a reform of hospital services.

Outlining her vision of health and social care over the next 10 years, Miss O’Neill labelled the current model “unsustainable” and pointed to the need to reform community and hospital services. She said the key to planning for the future will be working with and listening to staff and engaging with patients and carers. 

Last week’s consultation meeting in Downpatrick was attended by senior departmental officials including deputy permanent secretary, Jackie Johnston, Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride, and his deputy, Dr Anne Kilgallen.

The overwhelming view of those present was that the Downe Hospital should be handed responsibility for delivering more services, with calls for the immediate reinstatement of 24-hour accident and emergency services and the reopening of the hospital’s coronary care ward. 

The need to enhance ambulance cover in the area was raised by a number of speakers, with demands that people in rural areas should not have to accept a lesser health service than those in Belfast.

Down Community Health Committee chairman, Eamonn McGrady, made it clear that community involvement in shaping the future delivery of health services is vital, suggesting Department of Health officials will understand local people’s scepticism because they have had a very bad experience over recent years with “government initiative after government initiative having the centralisation of health services at its core.”

Health campaigner Anne Trainor said she believes there is no reason why specialist services provided in Belfast could not be delivered at the Downe Hospital and told departmental officials “the world does not end in Belfast when it comes to health service provision.” 

She added: “There is absolutely no reason why specialist services should not be provided in hospitals around the Province like the Downe. We have the staff and the building to do this.”

Campaigners also called for a short stay unit at the Downpatrick hospital — which has never been opened — to be made available, arguing the move can help reduce increasing waiting lists at emergency departments in the greater Belfast area.

Unison official, Marion Ritchie, suggested providing 24-hour A&E cover at the Downe Hospital would help reduce the time local people have to wait to be admitted to emergency departments at hospitals in the Belfast area. She also called for GP numbers to be increased to help ease the pressure on waiting lists and for greater recognition to be given to the health needs of people in rural areas.

Department of Health officials said last week’s meeting provided people with an opportunity to “fundamentally shape, inform and influence” the criteria that will be used to deliver services in the future, insisting the latest consultation was not a “box ticking exercise.” The deputy permanent secretary said Miss O’Neill wants to see “genuine engagement with communities in terms of redesigning services going forward.”