Cuts to Downe are ‘shameful’

Cuts to Downe are ‘shameful’

27 January 2016

ONE of Northern Ireland’s most senior politicians has described the reduction in services at the Downe Hospital as “shameful.”

TUV leader Jim Allister made the comment after visiting the hospital last week and meeting with health campaigners to listen to their concerns about the closure of the Downe’s dedicated coronary care unit and the reduction in the emergency department’s opening hours.

Mr Allister said while he had a passing acquaintance with the struggles of the Downe Hospital, seeing it in real life “really brings home to you what a scandal it is that this the state-of-the-art premises, built at a cost of tens of millions of pounds, is being so under utilised.”

The North Antrim MLA said: “I just can’t get my head around why you would not want to be building on this facility, utilising it to its full instead of running it down. This is a local service and if you do not use it for coronary and other things, you are just shipping people out to accentuate the queues and trolley waits elsewhere.”

Agreeing that hospitals in Belfast are struggling to cope with increased demand, Mr Allister said while his walk through the ground floor of the Downe last week revealed some empty beds, the one thing he did not see was people on trollies.

“If I go to some of the city centre hospitals you would be tripping over people on trollies. Here, we have a facility that can ease that and one that can be utilised to the full yet, there seems to be a mentality of ‘oh no’ we do not want to do that. It seems that if we have spent £65m on this hospital we should be getting the most out of it, not the least.

“Very often you need to stabilise people, you need to assess them before you can maximise the use of the hospitals at the centre. Indeed, you might need to save their life before you start the journey to the centre. I think not utilising a facility which is here is almost criminal and do think it was very short sighted of the health minister and the local trust to have allowed the Downe Hospital to be run down to the point where now it is a shadow of what it could be.”

Mr Allister said he will “ask some of the hard questions” at Assembly level, explaining he would like to know in terms of the run down that has taken place at the Downe if there has ever been a consultation which premised that.

“I don’t believe there has because of course the old trick has been pulled of saying closures are ‘temporary.’ The reason they say that is because that avoids the statutory obligation on consultation. Temporary has a terrible habit in the health service of turning into permanent. We have seen that with so many hospitals and that is what is happening here.

“I think it is shameful the authorities have been able to reduce this hospital to the level it has without ever consulting in the due process with anyone. It is quite clear there is huge community support because there have been thousands of people on the streets supporting this hospital. But there seems to be a mentality of ‘we know better.’”

Mr Allister believes there is a critical role for smaller hospitals and said he does not subscribe to the “big is beautiful notion” which he suggested some seem to want to impose on the health service, particularly rural communities “who are as deserving of proper facilities as others.”

He continued: “There has to be a convenience to those facilities and I know you can’t have every discipline in every smaller hospital, but you can provide the basics. The Downe was built for coronary care, A&E and maternity. You can provide these elementary services for the local community and do it in a way which is not only serving them, but serving the wider interests.” 

Mr Allister argued if you focus everything into the centre then you get into what he described as “horrendous trolley waits,” suggesting the Downe is a safety valve to avoid that in other places. He said the hospital should be utilised to the full, not minimised.”