A&E warning issued

A&E warning issued

5 April 2017

NEWRY Mourne and Down Council must unite as one body to prevent the haemorrhaging of A&E services from the district.

That was the message at Monday’s meeting of the council, which saw an emergency motion tabled on the potential suspension of 24-hour emergency care at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry.

Last week the Southern Trust released a statement warning that a staffing crisis could force them to reduce opening hours at the Emergency Department for patient safety, reminiscent of the staffing crisis at the Downe Hospital in Downpatrick and the 2013 decision to close its Emergency Department at night and at weekends.

If forced to reduce opening hours, it could mean the entire Newry Mourne and Down area is without 24-hour consultant led emergency care.

In its statement, the Southern Trust said it remained committed to maintaining the Emergency Department at Daisy Hill and that suspension was a “last resort”.

“However, despite numerous recruitment efforts over the last two years, both nationally and internationally, there continues to be a shortage of permanent senior medical staff,” it said.

In her motion to the council on Monday, Sinn Fein councillor Roisin Mulgrew said every effort had to be made to ensure the staff shortage is urgently addressed. “We demand that the Southern Health and Social Care Trust maintains a 24/7 service,” she said.

She said the expectation that people would travel to Craigavon Area Hospital for emergency care was inappropriate, especially for people living in areas such as South Armagh and Kilkeel.

“It is almost an hour and a half to get there,” she said.

Newcastle councillor Willie Clarke said he too feared for residents in the Newcastle and Kilcoo.

“This is replicating what happened at the Downe,” he said.

The DUP’s Glyn Hanna also pointed to the example of the Downe Hospital. “In Downpatrick the downgrading became permanent,” he said.

Councillor Billy Walker agreed: “This is a replica of what has been happening in the Downe over the last number of years. I think it is time that we as councillors and we as a council said ‘enough is enough’.”

Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright claimed that availability of staff was “only an excuse” to advance certain hospitals ahead of others.

”This is exactly what happened in Downpatrick,” he said. “I sit on a South Eastern Health Trust financial committee and have seen written confirmation that trust employee contacts are no longer written on a single hospital basis. The Trust has simply decided to allocate available staff to to the Greater Belfast Area, rather than Downpatrick.

“The Trust still accepts that there is a clinical need for a 24 hour A and E in the Downpatrick area. Downpatrick was never ‘downgraded’. There is still a budget for a 24 hour A and E, but they claim they cannot find the staff. I am not convinced that there has been a real effort to find staff. On the old Down Council we would have gone out and looked for staff ourselves, the new super council is very weak on this issue in East Down. Now that the Southern Trust are playing the same trick in Newry - maybe the issue will be taken seriously.

“I am warning my Newry colleagues that when you lose your A and E you also run into trouble with your ambulance cover. We have had a ratepayer lying on Market Street in Downpatrick for an hour waiting for an ambulance when all our ambulances were in Belfast. We have had worse tragedies in Newcastle.

Ms Mulgrew’s motion was supported by all parties and an emergency meeting is to be requested with the Southern Trust.