Campaign in Stormont fighting for the Downe

Campaign in Stormont fighting for the Downe

22 April 2015

THE campaign to have 24-hour accident and emergency and dedicated coronary care services restored at the Downe Hospital was taken to the heart of government yesterday afternoon.

Hospital campaigners and students from a number of local schools met MLAs from a number of parties to outline their concerns about recent service cuts at the Downpatrick hospital during an event at Stormont.

Campaigners briefed members of the Assembly’s Health Committee and outlined their concerns about the recent loss of hospital services at an event hosted by South Down MLA Chris Hazzard.

Down Community Health Committee chairman, Eamonn McGrady, said he was delighted with the number of people who attended the event and thanked MLAs for listening to the concerns of a community which has had to watch key hospital services bring stripped away.

He outlined the “great concern” that beds were axed at the Downe when there was no financial pressure, with 24-hour coronary care and the hospital’s dedicated coronary care ward now also lost as the salami slicing of services continues.

“It is time there was a bigger role for local communities in the delivery of the health services they require,” he declared. “We accept things have to change but that change must be for the better. That change has to deliver better services to meet the needs of people and their families.

“The centralisation of services is a massive issue for us. While a lot of good work is carried out in the health system, it is faulty and there are ways in which it could be so much better.”

Mr. McGrady said campaigners want politicians to take control of health policy in Northern Ireland with the Department of Health implementing the policy determined by elected representatives.

He added: “The purpose of today was to bring our message to the heart of Stormont and we have done that. We are very hopeful there will now be constructive engagement into the future with the Assembly’s Health Committee and believe it is important its visitors see the Downe Hospital. We know what it means to us, but I think the politicians need to be reminded what it is all about.”

South Down MP Margaret Ritchie accused the Department of Health, South Eastern Trust and Heath and Social Care Board of “failing” on promises given in 2003 to deliver accessibility to health services in an enhanced local hospital in Downpatrick.

Welcoming a commitment for hospital campaigners to meet with the full Assembly Health Committee again, the MP said the Department of Health while pursuing a centralist policy, is ensuring hospitals like the Downe are robbed of services.

She added: “This is what mandarins at the government department have been trying to do for years. We want the restoration of the services we have lost, the retention of those already in place and the provision of a new suite of services because the Downe has operating theatres to allow this to happen.”

Mr. Hazzard, also delighted so many people participated in yesterday’s event, said over-crowding in the Belfast hospitals, financial mismanagement, centralisation of services, and woeful shortage of ambulance cover directly affects health provision at the Downe and across the South Down area. He said the “creeping centralisation” of a raft of services across the constituency is harming many aspects of life in what is a rural community. 

“Hospitals services are being striped out of the area with people expected to travel to Belfast to receive them. It is the same distance from Belfast to Downpatrick and why should people in the city not travel to the Downe for some of their services?

“We have berated Health Minister Jim Wells on the Downe Hospital issue so many times but I do not believe he is going to change his mind on the issue. I do not believe anything will change until we have a new Health Minister.”

Mr. Hazzard added: “We need a Health Minister who will stand up to the centralisation policy and stand up for local communities. Until that happens, we will have to keep fighting for our local hospital services.”

South Down MLA John McCallister said the battle must continue to secure the funding required to to build up services at the Downe and questioned why local people are being asked by hospital administrators to come up with solutions to the problems at the hospital.