HEALTH campaigners have called for the immediate expansion of the urgent care service at the Downe Hospital and vowed to continue campaigning for the return of its 24-hour emergency department.
The consultant-led urgent care service was introduced last October and currently operates between 8am and 6pm from Monday to Friday.
The Downe offers only a minor injuries service at the weekend.
While the Down Community Health Committee wants the urgent care centre to operate seven days a week and to remain operational until 8pm each evening, it remains fully focused on its campaign to have 24-hour emergency services restored at the hospital.
Campaigners accept that the restoration of 24-hour emergency provision is unlikely in the immediate future, but they want the urgent care centre’s operation expanded immediately.
Their call came after the South Eastern
Trust again warned via its social media outlets on Monday and Tuesday that the emergency
department at Dundonald’s Ulster Hospital was “extremely busy” and asked people if their condition was not urgent to consider other treatment options.
Calling for the restoration of pre-Covid level emergency department services at the Downe by expanding the urgent care centre, community health committee officials insist that they see no reason for any delay.
“We are calling on the health trust to immediately extend the opening hours of the urgent care centre at the Downe Hospital to 8pm as a matter of urgency and for the centre to become a seven day a week provision,” they said in a statement.
“This is a small step that will have the effect of taking pressure off other hospitals and, more importantly, from the perspective of the people of East Down, deliver a safe and convenient service to patients and their families.”
Campaigners believe that extending the urgent care centre to a daily service ending at 8pm
may also alleviate some pressure on the Ambulance Service which has been experiencing some difficulties in providing appropriate emergency responses locally.
And the community health committee has revealed that it has been informed about issues in connection with laboratory testing for the Downpatrick hospital site.
“Limited onsite testing is currently available at the Downe but we understand that a modest capital investment in point of care testing could lead to a significant increase in diagnostic capacity. The time for that investment has arrived,” the statement continues.
“We are also calling on the South Eastern Trust to address this issue as a matter of urgency and encourage local elected representatives to pursue this matter vigorously until it is addressed.”
Last week, health campaigners urged the Department of Health to give a categorical assurance that no changes to emergency care at the Downe and other hospitals would be implemented until there has been “full and meaningful consultation” with communities affected by such major change.
In addition, they called on hospital administrators to provide full details of the implications for patients and staff of proposed “administrative” changes announced recently which have caused “significant concern” to staff at the Downe.
A spokeswoman for the South Eastern Trust said there were no plans to change the consultant-led urgent care centre service at the Downe.
She confirmed that the organisation continues to explore how best to deliver services in the Downe so as to safely meet the needs of the population.
“Patients continue to be admitted for assessment and treatment from the consultant-led urgent care centre, frail elderly rapid assessment unit and primary care,” she said.
The spokeswoman reaffirmed the health trust’s commitment to build a “sustained and thriving acute hospital”.