The current crisis at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry is reflective of the deep systematic crisis in the Northern Ireland health service which will result in unnecessary deaths.
This is the stark view from the cross-party Daisy Hill Hospital Future Group which is calling for emergency meetings with the Department of Health Permanent Secretary Peter May, the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Michael McBride and the senior management of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. The high-powered group is demanding immediate intervention to ensure that acute in-patient medical care can continue to be delivered at Daisy Hill Hospital to the large and growing population of Newry City, South Armagh and South and Mid-Down.
Service collapse at Daisy Hill would have huge implications for the whole of the Northern Ireland healthcare system. Thousands of patients would have to be diverted to other hospitals already struggling to manage serious overcrowding, staff shortages, inadequate resourcing, and a lack of beds. An already overstretched NI Ambulance Service would be unable to handle the additional work which would result. NI Ambulance Service has already highlighted concerns about its current ability to meet minimum response times in southeast ulster.
Dr Conor Patterson Chair of the Daisy Hill Hospital Future Group said, “The engagement to date with those tasked with making these decisions has been disingenuous and misleading. On the one hand we are being told they are doing all they can to recruit to Daisy Hill Hospital while on the other hand they are walking staff out the door generating extremely negative PR and crashing the morale of staff who have given everything to the hospital. If those with the responsibility for this crisis really wished to retain services at Daisy Hill they would be operating a rotation system between hospitals and taking other measures to recruit and retain staff.
“Daisy Hill is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and not just an issue for the people of this area. Downgrading services at the hospital simply adds to capacity issues elsewhere. It is our understanding that there is insufficient capacity in Craigavon Area Hospital or the Belfast Trust to accommodate patients who will not be able to get treatment at Daisy Hill. Service and safety will therefore be compromised for citizens right across the Southern Trust area and beyond as a result of these short-sighted decisions.
“The prospect of a failure now to act decisively to restore Daisy Hill’s crucial role in the provision of acute medical care is too awful to contemplate because people will needlessly die. An immediate rescue plan is needed, and leadership is required. Daisy Hill is an asset which must be supported. If it isn’t it will initiate a domino effect of service collapse elsewhere across the Northern Ireland health service.”
ENDS
CLANRYE NEWS 