Renewed call for full A&E services at Downe

Renewed call for full A&E services at Downe

6 January 2016

WEEKEND pressure at emergency departments at Northern Ireland’s leading hospitals has prompted fresh calls for 24-hour A&E services to be reinstated at the Downe Hospital.

A significant increase in patients attending emergency departments over the weekend prompted a public plea to only use them only in emergency cases. The biggest increase was at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald where there was a 25% rise in emergency department patients.

Delayed discharges from wards, due to difficulty getting nursing home places or care packages, has been blamed as one of the factors in the high level of pressure on emergency departments according to senior clinicians.

In a joint statement last Sunday, the Health and Social Care Board and Public Health Agency warned some patients were having to wait longer to be treated because of the pressure on staff.

They said patients were being treated on the basis of clinical priority and urged the public to consider other options, if their symptoms were not urgent or life-threatening.

South Down MP, Margaret Ritchie, has called on Stormont health minister Simon Hamilton to intervene in the A&E crisis by ensuring the first class accident and emergency services at the Downe Hospital are fully utilised.

She said the weekend announcement that emergency departments across Northern Ireland were experiencing high levels of pressure with patients waiting longer to be treated came three weeks after outpatient clinics were cancelled at the Ulster, with an ambulance divert put in place, to help the hospital to cope with what were described as “unprecedented pressures.”

Miss Ritchie said Mr Hamilton “needs to act quickly” and intervene in this matter, arguing more medical services should be carried out at the Downpatrick hospital’s emergency department.

She continued: “The Downe’s A&E department has the capability, the technology and, most importantly, the expertise to provide increased services. At the time of the removal of consultant-led A&E services from the Downe at weekends and evenings, I warned that additional pressures would be placed on the already over-burdened hospitals in Belfast. 

“This has led previously to lengthening trolley waits and unacceptable pressures on already over-stretched medical and nursing staff. Sadly, it has become apparent the Ulster and other Belfast hospitals are struggling to cope with continuing pressures on their respective A&E departments.”

Miss Ritchie said facilities at the Downe are not only first class, but lend themselves to a high standard of staff development and patient care. 

“It is very clear with the demands facing the Ulster A&E — undoubtedly a knock-on effect from the closure of the City Hospital’s emergency department a number of years ago — that facilities and services at the Downe must be fully utilised,” the MP declared.

Miss Ritchie added: “I would like to pay tribute to the hard working staff in all emergency departments across Northern Ireland who are working in this highly pressurised environment daily, providing an excellent standard of service to all patients.

“However, the status quo cannot continue. The Minister needs to intervene and work with the South Eastern Trust to reinstate full consultant A&E-led services at the Downe for the interests, safety and health of patients, staff and the wider community.”