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The Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health, Peter May, is meeting the Daisyhill Hospital Save Our Emergency Surgery campaign group in Newry tomorrow evening, Wednesday 7 June to discuss the crisis unfolding at Daisy Hill Hospital. It follows a serious of difficulties at the Newry hospital with nine consultants leaving in recent weeks, the removal of stroke patients from Daisy Hill to Craigavon Hospital and a decision to reduce bed numbers at the hospital from late July.
A spokesman for the group, Francis Gallagher, said "With the authorisation of our group, I will be asking the Permanent Secretary was there a senior political decision made to decimate Daisyhill as an outworking of the Bengoa recommendations that were signed at Stormont?
"It is extremely rare in Western society for a whole acute hospital to go into meltdown, practically overnight, with the stripping away of a whole raft of acute services. This is what makes me ask the question: has all this been planned at a senior political and departmental level?
"Our campaign group is meeting this Wednesday night 7th June 2023 at 7.30pm, upstairs in the Bank restaurant Newry. All our meetings are open to the wider public to take part in our discussions and decisions. Everyone is welcome.
"The main item on the agenda is the devastating crisis at Daisyhill and what action can be taken to stabilise the hospital and to regain the acute services that have been stripped away. I will be asking the public at the meeting to authorise the questions to ask the permanent secretary and to present their own questions for our group representatives to ask Peter May. We will also ask the public to endorse our strategy to meet the challenges ahead."
