Councillors to mount campaign against move

Councillors to mount campaign against move

21 December 2011

DOWN Council is to vigorously oppose plans to transfer 33 finance staff from the Downshire Hospital in Downpatrick to Ballymena.

Under a proposed shake-up of administration services across the Province’s health service, the local staff face the prospect of a daily 110-mile round trip to Co. Antrim next October.

The Business Services Organisation (BSO) has drawn up plans for a major reshuffle of a raft of services aimed at saving an estimated £100m over the next 10 years. The proposals are currently out to public consultation.

On Monday night, local politicians agreed to seek a meeting with Health Minister Edwin Poots to discuss their concerns about the proposal to move staff from Downpatrick. They want to know why the Downshire site wasn’t chosen as one of the new centres of excellence the BSO wants to create.

Politicians are also seeking a meeting with the Assembly’s Health Committee to outline their concern and aim to prepare a robust response to the BSO proposal before the

consultation period ends on February 29.

There was across-the-board political support for a motion from Rowallane councillor Terry Andrews to seek a meeting with Mr. Poots to highlight the impact the loss of 33 jobs from the area would have.

Councillor Andrews said a number of the finance staff currently based at Bernagh House at the Downshire site are working mothers who could not afford to travel to Ballymena.

“The expense involved in travelling to Ballymena would be financially crippling for these staff. These workers must be retained at the Downshire site and we must send out a clear message that we want no more jobs taken out of this district,” he declared.

“There are plans to create a centre of excellence at the Downshire and the BSO should base its new financial base in Downpatrick, not Ballymena.”

Councillor Billy Walker called for an end to the “haemorrhaging of public sector jobs from Downpatrick” and asked what the view of staff in Ballymena would be if they were asked to travel to the Downshire site to work.

Councillor Maria McCarthy highlighted the need for the local authority to go through the proper channels during the consultation period to voice its concern about what is proposed and urged the public to register its opposition to the loss of 33 jobs from Downpatrick.

“It seems to me that the consultation process has a predetermined outcome. There is no rhyme nor reason for moving these staff from the Downshire and there are huge inaccuracies in the document which outlines the proposed changes. We must mount a robust challenge,” she added.

Councillor Carmel O’Boyle described the BSO proposal as a “blatant attack on family life and people’s domestic arrangements” and said asking local staff to work in Ballymena is out of the question.

Councillor Willie Clarke said rather than taking public sector jobs out of the district, the opposite should be happening as the Downshire is being developed as a public sector campus.

Councillor Cadogan Enright said Down Council is the only body working with a health authority to create a shared services public sector campus at the Downshire site. He said the fact another health organisation now wants to remove 33 jobs from the same location is more than just ironic and must be resisted.