Write a commentAlmost a thousand people turned out at the Canal Court Hotel last night for a meeting organised by a newly formed community group Save our Emergency Department.
Despite the massive attendance, the meeting was most notable for the absence on the panel of a representative from the Southern Health and Social Care Trust who are making the decisions for Daisy Hill Hospital.
Brendan Curran who was chairing the meeting commented "This is a very important meeting tonight. This meeting is literally about a life and death matter. People in this area deserve and need an accident and emergency, full time, not part time, and the people in this area will not stand or take anything less."
Panelists spoke on their views of the current critical position regarding the prospect of the Emergency Department at the Hospital closing at night, following statements by the trust that they were unable to fill vacancies at the hospital. The panel included Cllr David Taylor, Conor Murphy, MLA; Cllr Patrick Brown, Brendan Curran, Chair; Justin McNulty, MLA; Francis Gallagher, Daisy Hill Action Group and Jim Wells, MLA.
The meeting was then opened up to the floor.
Cllr Gillian Fitzpatrick, chairperson, Newry, Mourne and Down Council added "Right now this minute in time Daisy Hill Hospital is not closed, right now we need to put an action in to stop Daisy Hill or any threat of Daisy Hill closing. We need to work together as a team. Folks do you want a protest (audience Yes!) .. then as first citizen of this district, it will be in action tomorrow morning"
Another speaker commented "The systematic undermining of this hospital, the stripping away of this hospital, the turning of this into a ghost hospital where nobody wants to work has to end. There has to be a long term commitment coming from the assembly, coming from the politicians, coming from the civil service that this hospital is here to stay and its going to be here for good and it's going to be built back up into a proper hospital."
One of the last speakers Dr Donal Duffin, Consultant at Daisy Hill Hospital in a passionate speech added "There are lots of people who want to work in Newry. I gave my employer six months notice of my wish to retire, I gave them the names of two consultants who would love to come to work in Newry but the damn posts haven't been advertised yet.
"Everyone in this room says there is a need for action. Well the action starts tonight. I want one thing from the politicians. The trust board meets on Thursday for the third trust board meeting in barely six weeks and based on what they have done on the two previous board meetings I think it is extremely likely that they will announce whatever their decision is on Thursday. We in this room demand they immediately stop any suggestion of them closing the Daisy Hill Emergency Department out of hours"
The Southern Trust meet on Thursday at 2.30pm in the Boardroom at Craigavon for an "update on Daisy Hill Hospital Emergency Department"
