1 Comment
An Emergency Notice of Motion on Emergency Surgery Provision at Daisy Hill Hospital was discussed at length at last week's monthly meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down Council. It follows notification from the Southern Trust that they will be moving Emergency Surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital to Craigavon from 28 February and that patients who attend Daisy Hill Emergency Department after this date who require admission for emergency surgical treatment will be transferred to Craigavon for ongoing care.
The motion brought forward by Newry City Councillor Rosin Mulgrew, expressed opposition to the Southern Trust's decision to remove Emergency Surgery from the hospital and asked for the decision to be reversed. An addition to the motion by Councillor Michael Savage also agreed to call for an international procurement exercise to obtain Surgeons for the hospital, the exploration and delivery of cross border health services served from Daisy Hill and a meeting between the new Trust chief and the NI Ambulance Service.
Taking Ambulances out of service
Speaking about the motion Cllr Mulgrew explained that she was taken by surprise as the Council was actually waiting for a date to discuss the expansion of theatre services at Daisy Hill.
"Now the Trust explanation that they have given regarding the resignation of a surgeon within Daisy Hill Hospital, okay, someone has resigned that's fine. However, they tell us that this is going to affect between five and six patients daily who would normally present themselves in the Emergency Department who may require abdominal surgery.
"Now the suggestion is that those five or six patients are then taken by ambulance to Craigavon Area Hospital. Now for anybody in the Newry, South Armagh and South Down area, we are well aware of the pressure under our ambulance services and we all have horror stories, some within my own family about the length of time people who are seriously ill have had to wait on an ambulance. People who have been involved in accidents, people who have had strokes. If we had five or six people, realistically to take from Daisy Hill Hospital to Craigavon Area Hospital to offload your patient to hand over the notes to the clinical personnel in Craigavon Area Hospital and to return to Daisy Hill with a very good wind behind you you'll do it in three hours. If there's a queue outside Craigavon Area Hospital which is routine now, a queue of ambulances waiting to offload their patients. This effectively will be taking an ambulance out of service for our area. One ambulance over the course of 24 hours. So I would like to add to the initial amendment that we contact the ambulance service and ask what communications have taken place between them and the Trust. What assurances they can give the people of our community that there will be adequate ambulance provision to make up the shortfalls that these ambulances commuting patients to Craigavon Area Hospital is going to create because the bottom line is waiting time for an ambulance, for someone that is severely injured or hurt or has a stroke will ultimately cause lives and we need that reassurance. And while I understand difficult decisions have to be made solutions have also got to be found."
Mournes Councillor Michael Rice added "Daisy Hills location and population trends in the wider Newry, South Down, South Armagh and North Leinster mean that Daisy Hill's viability as a top class healthcare facility must be guaranteed."
Mournes Councillor Glyn Hanna said "The folk of Mourne really really do depend on that. I know my family have depended on it on many occasions and on many serious situations but what I don't want to see is the starting to drip feed away all the services up there."
Importance of attracting staff
Councillor David Taylor said "I certainly acknowledge the challenges that have been outlined by the Trust in terms of the availability of consultant general services within the Trust area at this time and indeed It's a problem across Northern Ireland in this regard. But I also worry about the foreward planning on these issues at times as well because it has been clear for a while now that these type of pressures were ahead and whilst we have heard about attempts to recruit people. I always ask the question, are we going far enough to recruit those positions that are absolutely vital in sustaining the services that we have at Daisy Hill Hospital such as emergency surgery.
The Councillor explained that he had spoken to the Health Minister and had expressed to him the importance of attracting staff to Daisy Hill to ensure that service provisions at the hospital are retained and even enhanced.
Beyond a Six County mindset
Newry City Councillor Michael Savage said "Daisy Hill’s location on the border in the South East corner of NI brings underpins the need for the rationalisation of our local health services to be looked at strategically beyond the six counties of the North and what is in reality an 11 county problem needs to be looked at beyond a six county mindset.
"Greater Cross Border co-operation in health across this island needs to be front and centre of any future planning for the role Daisy Hill Hospital plays in looking after the health needs of our people. Cross border health co-operation does not threaten anyone’s identity but it can potentially save lives be that in Newry, South Down, South Armagh, Co Louth or Co Monaghan."
Cllr Savage added "I am aware that Justin McNulty MLA has had ongoing engagement this week with the Republic’s Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in relation to greater cross-border cooperation in health and the key role Daisy Hill can play in that and I firmly believe that the health minister in the North would be pushing an open door if they engaged meaningfully with his or her southern counterpart in relation to make meaningful cross-border health co-operation a reality. There are funding sources such as Interreg and the Shared Island Unit to name just two available to support such an initiative and I believe we all have a duty to work together to make this happen for the benefit of all our citizens."
The Newry City Councillor proposed an amendment which would see a call for international efforts to procure surgical staff, exploration of cross border health solutions and an urgent meeting with the new Trust Chief Executive and Chief Executive of NI Ambulance Service.
It's for patient safety
Mournes Councillor Henry Reilly took a different viewpoint "I listened very intently to a presentation given by the Southern Trust management and it's not a transfer of surgery out of Daisy Hill. It's in this one specific instance whereby very detailed intricate surgery on people's abdomens can only be conducted by one surgeon at the minute that the Trust has available and what he pointed out was that if some other Surgeon comes into Daisy Hill who doesn't normally do that type of sophisticated surgery, he could operate on somebody's gallbladder to remove it or whatever and make a mess and that they have to prioritize patient safety and bring those five or six people who may present on a daily basis, to Craigavon to make sure that they get the best possible service. I can't understand why can't be accepted by people as a temporary measure If it's for patient safety."
Cllr Reilly added "I think it's a bit rich to talk about us accommodating Louth and Monaghan. It was the Irish Government that seriously run down Dundalk, Drogheda and Monaghan, centralised everything in Dublin and now the SDLP and Sinn Féin are telling us we have to take up the slack for County Louth. No, we're a part of the NHS of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We put our own people first and we get the resources in there to make sure our people get the treatment they deserve. If we can facilitate patients from the south okay, but our own people come first. That has to be the case."
Consultation
Councillor Gavin Malone said "How can this hospital provide serious emergency surgery with no ICU and without a full complement of Surgeons and anesthetic services. Is it not also worrying that conciding with the suspension of emergency services we have an announcement from the Trust that there will be a consultation on the future of surgery, emergency surgery in the near future."
Cutback rates in Newry different from Craigavon
Cllr Cadogan Enright couldn't understand why the same level of cutbacks didn't also happen in Craigavon "The greater Newry area has an equivalent population to the greater Craigavon area. If you look at it, based on the public information, therefore, one would expect the temporary cutbacks to occur in the Craigavon area, the same rate they occur in the Newry area because the populations are the same. I'd really like to know and my belief is that they don't seem to occur at the same level and I'd like to ask why - I don't know why."
Daisy Hill belongs to National Health Service
Cllr Harold McKee said "we've got to remember that this Daisy Hill Hospital we're referring to tonight belongs to the National Health Service. It does not belonged to anything other, certainly not across the border. East Monaghan, North Louth is certainly not part of Northern Ireland so therefore I can't see we are ready inundated in our hospital without adding on to it. How can you make things any better by increasing the numbers to go to it. Chair I will not be in favor of that amendment whatsoever."
The Vote
Cllr David Taylor said he felt that the addition of Cllr Savages amemdment diluted the message and that it was getting slightly political and that his grouping would be abstaining.
A five minute recess took place to discuss Cllr Savage's amendment and following this Cllr Mulgrew agreed to accept Cllr Savages amendment and the Motion was passed 30 for, 5 against and 4 abstentions.
The original Motion
This Council expresses its complete opposition to the Southern Trust's decision to temporarily remove Emergency Surgery provision at Daisy Hill Hospital. We call on that decision to be reversed and efforts redoubled to guarantee continued and improved service provision for people in this district.
We further call on all parties to support the proposed 2022-25 Budget which will see huge increases in health spending across the north.
We ask that this motion be forwarded to the Southern Trust and the Health Minister.
The Amended Motion which was passed
This Council expresses its complete opposition to the Southern Trust’s decision to temporarily remove Emergency Surgery provision at Daisy Hill Hospital. We call on that decision to be reversed and efforts redoubled to guarantee continued and improved service provision for people in this district.
We further call on all parties to support the proposed 2022-25 Budget which will see huge increases in health spending across the north.
We ask that this motion be forwarded to the Southern Trust and the Health Minister.”
Council calls for part of any future increased health budget, to be ringfenced for (i) unprecedented/international procurement efforts to fill the complete complement of surgical expertise (ii) the exploration and delivery of cross-border health solutions where an enhanced and expanded Daisy Hill would serve Co Monaghan and Co Louth as well as Newry, South Down and South Armagh.
And further calls for an urgent meeting between Council and the new Chief Executive of the Southern Trust and the Chief Executive of the NI Ambulance Service to discuss the proposed temporary removal of emergency surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital.
