MP criticial of new IT plan to reduce A&E waiting lists

MP criticial of new IT plan to reduce A&E waiting lists

21 October 2015

HEALTH chiefs need to do more to resolve the length of time people have to wait in hospital emergency departments to be seen by a doctor, according to South Down MP Margaret Ritchie.

Her comments come after the Health and Social Care Board introduced a new on-line casualty wait checker as part of plans to reduce treatment delays over the winter. 

The new facility allows people to find out how long they’ll have to wait before they receive treatment at any of the Province’s emergency departments. Live waiting times across all emergency departments will appear on the web page that will also allow patients access to alternative care options.

The new online facility is one of a number of initiatives being rolled out by health authorities as they strive to address an ongoing problem that last year saw 3,000 people spend more than 12 hours in emergency departments. But Miss Ritchie insists much more needs to be done, including reopening the 24-hour A&E service at the Downe Hospital.

She declared: “Yet again, the Department of Health thinks it will resolve a health and medical waiting list problem for diagnostic services and surgical interventions through a computerised database solution. That is not a solution; it simply tells the numbers on the waiting lists. It doesn’t reduce the waiting list or provide easier access to medical treatment.

“To solve a waiting list problem that has been compounded over recent years as a result of centralisation 

of some hospital services, the lack of A&E doctors and the growing budgetary challenges, is the need to re-open the Downpatrick hospital’s 24-hour emergency department. The Downe has the technology, the capacity, the accommodation space and the clinical networks with the Belfast hospitals to do the job.”

Miss Ritchie added: “This is what is urgently required and the Minister for Health needs to get back at the helm of his department in order that the health and medical needs of this community can be attended to in a more accessible and expeditious manner.”

Councillor Dermot Curran, a member of the Local Health Commissioning Group which has responsibility for assessing health and social care needs and planning to meet current and emerging needs, said what patients really want to see is the return of 24-hour emergency services at the Downe.

He believes reinstating the service would help ease the pressures on the major Belfast hospitals where patients can wait for up to 12 hours in emergency departments.

“Enhancing local A&E provision could assist in addressing the backlog which builds up at other hospital emergency departments. The current A&E unit at the Downe operates with reduced opening hours and while there are problems securing the doctors needed to work at the hospital, this is an issue many people want to see addressed so we can see a return to the 24-hour service people expect and demand,” he declared.

Councillor Curran added: “We were told that reducing emergency provision at the Downe would be a temporary measure, but temporary seems to have become a euphemism for permanent. That is very worrying as far as the people of this district are concerned.”

The website is www.nidirect.gov.uk/emergency-department-average-waiting-times.