MP says rural people need access to NHS

MP says rural people need access to NHS

25 January 2017

OFFICIALS in charge of overseeing major changes to Northern Ireland health services must ensure the needs of rural communities are met, according to South Down MP Margaret Ritchie.

In her response to a consultation document on the delivery of services over the next decade, the MP said those charged with mapping out the future direction must ensure services are provided at the Downe Hospital to ensure local accessibility.

Miss Ritchie’s formal response comes a week after a call for the Downpatrick hospital to play a key role in the future delivery of the Province’s health care was issued at a public meeting in the town.

The calls have been echoed by Miss Ritchie who says further examination of the criteria that will be used to map out future services “represents a recipe for further entrenched rationalisation and centralisation of health and medical services in Northern Ireland.”

The MP argues the guidelines which will determine future service delivery in many ways characterise what the Department of Health and the Royal Colleges have been trying to do for decades in Northern Ireland in terms of centralisation of services in the Belfast hospitals where there has been a reduction in the resident population. 

Miss Ritchie said in so doing, the Department of Health has “deployed various efforts to remove local medical and health services from regional hospitals.”

The MP said the seeds for the problems in health service provision were sown several years ago with the closure of facilities, the withdrawal and centralisation of services, a reduction of hospital beds and the desired objective of many middle grade doctors to seek employment overseas. 

“As a consequence, we see longer waiting lists for medical and health assessments and surgical procedures with little concentration on elective medicine,” she continued.  “The consultation document seems to facilitate the continuous testing of health and medical services which might not allow a service to become rooted in a local hospital.”

Miss Ritchie said more training places for junior doctors and GPs need to be provided, asking what discussions have taken place with the College of Emergency Medicine on the issue, what recruitment drives have already taken place, what have been the outcomes and what future recruitment drives are in place?

The MP contends that resource, staff and budgetary issues are not sufficiently addressed in the consultation document, “with a general feeing in rural communities like South Down that not enough has been invested in health provision over the years, with the bulk of the cash invested in Belfast hospitals.”

She continued: “Whist health and medical function commands a large slice of the overall budget for Northern Ireland, it has been reduced in real terms over many years and that has impacted on service delivery to patients and residents.

“The consultation needs to recognise the medical and health needs of rural communities, some of whom reside in upland regions and coastal communities of the Mournes. The requirement to provide for local accessibility and equity of service for those rural communities is essential. Hospitals like the Downe need to have existing services underpinned and those which have been removed restored, alongside a whole range of new medical and health services.”

Miss Ritchie said available accommodation and computerised technology at the Downe which would allow staff to be in contact with senior medics at other hospitals via so-called clinical networking, could allow some specialist services to be provided locally.

She added: “Health officials have indicated their desire to listen to the views of the local population during the consultation process. I hope they will be able to implement the desired objectives of rural communities in terms of continuing health and medical provision being made available in local hospitals to achieve the principles of local accessibility and equity. We simply request the same access to treatment as our neighbours in the Belfast conurbation.”