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Following last weeks Daisy Hill Hospital meeting on the Withdrawal of Emergency General Surgery local MLA Justin McNulty has said the Southern Trust must take urgent action to stabilize services and build confidence at the Hospital.
Mr. McNulty said “The Southern Trust led the meeting with a panel of esteemed surgeons as well as the Chief Executive who spent over an hour seeking to explain the rationale for the removal of emergency general surgery from Daisy Hill Hospital. Whilst the guiding principle from the medical experts focussed on patient safety and an inability to recuit consultants, not many in the room left feeling reassured or comforted that in the instance of needing acute surgery, that facilty will be accessible at Daisy Hill and their health outcomes will be better.
Mr McNulty believes the Trust's commitment to the delivery of an MRI Scanner, and Elective Surgery Hub and expansion into the Monaghan Row site should all be celebrated, but said until they materialize they will do nothing to grow confidence or stabilize services.
“Concerns I raised on the night in relation to the interconnectivity of services and the destabilising impact of the withdrawal of emergency general surgery has had on Daisy Hill Hospital were not addressed. We are now in a situation where over recent weeks huge concerns have been conveyed to me from clinicians about the Medical Unit, Stroke Services and the High Depency Unit." he added
Mr McNulty continued “Honeyed words from the Trust just will not cut it. The people who turned out in their hundreds at the Canal Court Consultation Event who are fearful about their and their families’ access to health services deserve more. The overworked and underpaid staff at Dasiy Hill Hospital deserve to know that their jobs are secure and their working conditions will be safe and fully supported.
“We urgently need to see a detailed plan from the Trust outlining the detail in relation to the elective surgery hub with ambitious timelines that will build confidence and attract consultants."
The Newry and Armagh public representative concluded “I will not be going away on this issue. Future generations will curse those who are prepared to sacrifice essential services at Dasiy Hill Hospital at the altar of political expediency. We keeping hearing about decisions that cannot be made in the absence of an Executive, however, there doesn’t seem to be any barriers to decisions being made that take away services and appear to negatively impact people and communities. We in the SDLP are up for transformation and the inevitable difficult decisions that that will entail, however this withdrawal of Emergency General Surgery from Daisy Hill Hospital is a manifestation of decades of poor policy direction and underinvestment by the Department of Health and successive Health Ministers that has resulted in no protection of services outside the Belfast area leaving this Trust and others in an invideous position.”
