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The Chairman of the Daisy Hill Hospital Save Our Emergency Surgery Committee, Francis Gallagher has asked the public to support Daisy Hill Hospital with their feet by taking part in a rally on Saturday 29th April 2023 at 12noon.
The rally will start at Marcus Square on Newry's Hill Street and walk to Daisyhill where it is planned to have a ring of people around the hospital in a show of solidarity. Francis Gallagher said: 'Our campaign committee mobilised hundreds of people to attend a recent health Trust consultation meeting in the Canal Court Hotel. The consultation is about the Trust's proposal to permanently strip emergency general surgery from Daisyhill which was taken away last year without any consultation. The vast majority of people at that meeting made it very clear that they do not support the stripping away of emergency surgery from Daisyhill.
"Unfortunately the Southern Health Trust and Department of Health are not listening to our very reasonable demands to have basic life saving surgery at Daisyhill. This lack of accountability is shocking and has left us no choice but to escalate the campaign to the streets of Newry. We are asking for thousands of people to come to the rally because if people want to keep their local Acute hospital they need to make their voices heard."
Gallagher says he has been led to believe that without emergency surgery all the other acute services in the hospital could eventually collapse including the emergency department and maternity unit.
He concluded "One could argue that with the removal of emergency surgery, the Daisyhill ED has already been downgraded from a type 1 to a type 2 ED. For example, professional medical opinion we received, stated that if someone in Newry or other towns and town lands in the district has a ruptured intestine, the chances of making it to Craigavon in time are very slim. The logic of this is that people from South Down, Mournes, Newry Gullion are not getting equal access to lifesaving health care as those living nearer to Craigavon and Belfast. We are asking the public on 29th April to show they demand to be treated with equality and respect in the provision lifesaving surgery."
