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Members of the SOS Daisy Hill committee have met the Chief Executive of the Southern Health Trust, Steve Spoerry, to discuss the recent diversion of maternity services from Daisy Hill hospital to Craigavon hospital. The meeting, held at Daisy Hill also covered stroke services, car parking and investment in the site.
The diversion of maternity services was top of the agenda, with the Trust setting out the reasons for the move as outlined in its recent press statements. SOS told the meeting that maternity services were vital to the whole community in Newry, Mourne, South Down and South Armagh, and that everything possible should be done to secure those services now and in the future. The group said a fully functioning acute hospital and maternity unit was essential for patient safety, warning that without maternity provision at Daisyhill, some mothers and babies could be at risk due to a lack of timely intervention, given the extra travel time involved in reaching Craigavon. SOS said it wanted a proper support network put in place to ensure a divert of this kind does not happen again, and called for further investment at Daisyhill in infrastructure, staffing and staff retention. The campaign group added that the maternity divert had damaged trust within the community and that confidence building measures were now needed.
The Trust responded by confirming that progress was being made towards a permanent MRI scanner at the hospital with a site currently being identified and prepared. SOS said this would be a significant step forward, as the current scanner is a mobile unit, and a permanent MRI on site would help attract and retain more doctors at the hospital as well as reduce inconvenience for patients. The need for additional car parking at Daisy Hill was also raised, with SOS hopeful of progress on this in the near future. The Trust said work was under way to build cooperation on cross-border healthcare, particularly around increasing patient use of Daisy Hill from a wider catchment area, which it said would benefit the hospital's long term future by helping to secure additional resources.
SOS also raised the issue of stroke services, calling for full provision to be reinstated at Daisyhill. The group said the Minister of Health had informed them that reconfiguration of the region's stroke services remained under discussion, and that departmental officials would meet with SOS on the matter in the autumn. The group noted that stroke treatment is time critical, and that where a scan confirms a clot is responsible, lysis treatment can lead to significant recovery, but that the Trust stated
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that this treatment is currently only available at Daisy Hill for patients who arrive by private vehicle. Patients arriving by ambulance are instead taken to Craigavon, and SOS said the additional travel time could affect a patient's recovery, adding that an ambulance is not always available and that it can be difficult to get a stroke patient into a car. SOS said it recognised the wider context in which the Trust operates alongside the Department of Health and the Executive at Stormont, and that it would continue to work with the Trust on the issue.
Other matters discussed included the development of a better staff appraisal system to support staff morale, along with a proposal from SOS to locate a planned health hub at the Newry Quays complex, which the Trust confirmed remained open for further discussion. SOS described the meeting overall as frank, open and constructive, and thanked Spoerry and his officials for their willingness to engage in dialogue.
