Aontú representative says staffing crisis cannot be allowed to become another step towards centralising services away from Daisy Hill
Aontú Newry and Armagh representative Roisin Mulgrew has called for urgent action to protect inpatient maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital after the Southern Trust confirmed it is preparing plans to temporarily move births and inpatient maternity care to Craigavon.
Ms Mulgrew said:
“Today’s news will be deeply worrying for mothers, staff and families across Newry, south Armagh and the wider area.
“Giving birth is one of the most important moments in a mother’s life. Women deserve to know that when that moment comes, they will have safe, high-quality maternity care available as close to home as possible.
“Daisy Hill maternity must be protected.
“I fully accept that patient safety must come first. Aontú supports safe staffing levels and the principle of one-to-one midwifery care during labour. But the answer to a staffing crisis must be to recruit, retain and properly resource the staff necessary to provide a safe service – not to allow staffing problems to become so bad that they’re used as another excuse for stripping services out of Daisy Hill.
“We are talking about a maternity unit where 1,713 babies were born in the last year. Those mothers and babies do not disappear if inpatient services are transferred to Craigavon. Craigavon itself delivered 2,768 babies during the same period.
“Indeed, the Trust says its contingency planning is now looking at what additional capacity would be required at Craigavon. That raises an obvious question: where was the planning before we reached this point?
“We have been warning about the fragility of services at Daisy Hill for years. In June, maternity services were temporarily suspended because staffing fell below safe levels. Services resumed when medical cover was secured, but the underlying staffing problems remained.
“I also find some of the political reaction today extraordinary.
“We now have representatives from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, DUP and UUP expressing concern and promising to fight for Daisy Hill. There is a glaring contradiction here that cannot be ignored.
“It is particularly remarkable to see a UUP councillor presenting himself as part of the campaign against this situation when the Health Minister responsible is himself a UUP MLA. The UUP cannot simply direct public anger towards the Trust without answering questions about the political direction of health policy being pursued by its own Minister.
“But the hypocrisy is bigger than one party or one Minister.
“For a decade, the main Stormont parties – Sinn Féin, the SDLP, UUP, DUP and Alliance – have supported the Bengoa transformation agenda and the reconfiguration of our health service. Yet when the consequences of centralisation arrive at the doors of local hospitals, those same parties line up to oppose the loss of services in their own constituencies.
“They cannot have it both ways. You cannot support greater centralisation and reconfiguration at Stormont and then act as though threats to services in Newry, Causeway, Fermanagh and elsewhere have appeared from nowhere.
“This is precisely why Aontú has challenged the assumption that centralisation is always the answer. Geography matters. Rural communities matter. Border communities matter. Transport infrastructure matters.
“A mother in Crossmaglen being asked to travel much further to give birth is not an abstract exercise in healthcare restructuring. It has real consequences for her and her family.
“When Robbie Butler became Health Minister, I called on him to take a different approach and come to Newry to listen to those of us in the SOS Daisy Hill campaign, staff, patients and our community.
“He now has an opportunity to demonstrate that different approach. The wider health service must exhaust every possible option for securing the medical cover necessary to keep births at Daisy Hill.
“Daisy Hill should not be managed down service by service. It should be properly staffed, invested in and allowed to thrive as a hospital serving this entire border region.
“As a member of the SOS Daisy Hill committee, I have been part of this fight alongside the community, and Aontú has been involved in the campaign from its founding. We will continue to stand alongside maternity staff and local families in fighting to protect these services.
“Daisy Hill has already lost too much. Maternity must not be next.”
ENDS