Stakeholders’ make their plea for Daisy Hill

Part of their address was around what they see as the need for Craigavon Area Hospital and Daisy Hill Hospital to work more closely together.

Secretary of the Daisy Hill Future Group, Karl Hughes introduced the stakeholder organisation as follows: “I think most members in the room will be familiar with the role of the Daisy Hill Future Group over the past two and a half years, working with the Trust and with other agencies in promoting the interests of Daisy Hill Hospital primarily, but also very keenly interested in promoting the hospital estate across the Southern Trust.”

Mr Hughes continued: “In recent weeks, the Daisy Hill Future Group have been made aware of growing concerns about the continued provision of safe and secure Maternity services and Obstetric cover in the Daisy Hill Hospital site.

“Having met with Trust senior management to discuss the current situation, most recently on November 7, the Future Group remains very concerned about the progress of actions to ensure the maintenance of 24/7 Maternity services at Daisy Hill.

“While we acknowledge the ongoing significant regional challenges that are resulting in unacceptable delays is accessing Gynaecology services, our immediate focus remains very much fixed on the primary services at Daisy Hill, at this moment in time.”

Both he and retired hospital consultant, Dr Donal Duffin, discussed at length operational matters in the course of their presentation with board members.

Dr Duffin urged the Trust to learn from the past to address efficiency and recruitment issues: “The latest difficulties that we have in Obstetrics are just the latest in a series of crises in Daisy Hill Hospital.

“Seven years ago, I stood up on this floor and was told that there were plans to close the Emergency Department. It was clear to everyone in the room that it was unsafe, and it was thankfully stopped. It was stopped by leadership from Dr Anne Marie Telford.

“She brought together Trust representatives, staff representatives from the community, and over the course of 18 months, she came up with a solution, and you now have an Emergency Department at Daisy Hill that is safe. It’s 24/7, it’s effective, it’s working better than it’s ever done, it’s seeing more patients than it’s ever done.

“We brought together the Daisy Hill site and the Craigavon site, and now it has an Emergency Service that this Trust should be proud of. It’s a service that can’t keep up with demand, but it’s still a service that we should be proud of.

“We thought we had learned something through that fact-finding process, but we didn’t, because in May of last year, five consultants left all together.

“At that stage. It looked like medicine was going to collapse, but the Trust stepped up, carried out a superb international medical recruitment process that far exceeded my expectations, and we were able to bring over 65 to 69 staff who are now in various stages of induction, and have brought medicine back from the brink.

“Now that, unfortunately, isn’t the solution yet, because a lot of them are locums, we haven’t got a long-term solution yet, but we’re away from the brink, and medicine is functioning again.

“Why have we not learned what this Trust has to do? It has to stop working as two hospitals. It must start working as one Trust, providing one service, two sites to one population.

“Until they start working together, communicating properly, you will not have a solution.

“At the minute you have one bigger institution that is favoured in preference over a smaller, peripheral institution that is not favoured, and you have to learn to marry the two together.

“Neither site is big enough on its own to survive on its own. They must work together and co-operate. Neither can work on its own without the support of the other, and that applies to Craigavon just as much as it applies to Daisy Hill.

“Learn from what you learned previously about what worked, and let’s not be back here in another six months, with another crisis.”

Francis Gallagher, chairman of the SOS Daisy Hill Hospital Committee, suggested that attendance at any future rallies in relation to Daisy Hill Hospital could be even greater, and he argued that there should be more of a focus on Newry, in terms of hospital provision in the Southern Trust area: “We are the group that organised the rallies in Newry and the public meetings, which culminated in over 10,000 people attending our most recent rally.

“We’re preparing, if required, for another rally. But let me tell you, this time, it will not be 10,000, we’ll be in for 15,000 or 20,000, because of the community fears and emotions around this issue of Maternity.

“Craigavon Area Hospital is the regional hospital because of the size of Craigavon, its infrastructure, its services that it has available. But it takes over an hour and 30 minutes to travel from Kilkeel or Crossmaglen to Craigavon.

“So, should the regional hospital, for those areas, not be based in Newry, rather than at Craigavon, taking into account that Craigavon is 30 minutes to the big hospitals in Belfast? That’s a question that many people are asking in the area.”