Decision to remove emergency surgery at Daisy Hill slammed by campaigners

The decision was made at a meeting of the Trust Board on Thursday following the presentation of a feedback report on a 12 week consultation.

Presenting the outcome of the consultation, Trust Medical Director Dr Stephen Austin said: “Meeting the clinical standards to ensure the best outcomes for all patients living across the entire southern area, has been our absolute priority throughout this process.

“Having trialled this approach for over 18 months, delivering all Emergency General Surgery from the Craigavon site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week is the only way we can maintain a safe and effective service.”

However, a spokesperson for the SOS Daisy Hill campaign group say that the move “has put the lives of all people living in Newry, South Armagh, South Down and the border regions at risk”.

In a statement the campaigners said that people from these areas will now have to travel additional distances to receive the treatment they require.

“The board have totally ignored the residents of our region and have agreed to remove emergency surgery and proper stroke services, even though 10,000 people participated in a public rally and approximately 12,000 residents personally signed consultation replies condemning the proposal to remove emergency surgery and 18,000 people signed a consultation reply stating they did not support the removal of stroke services.

“The board and it’s management have totally disregarded the wishes of our community. Why consult when you already have a predetermined outcome? This is the question being asked by our community.

“There was no consultation on the removal of proper stroke services, it was unilaterally removed by management under the guise of staff shortages. Was there a Human Resources plan implemented to replace the stroke consultant who left Daisy Hill?”

The campaign group have called for the Northern Ireland Assembly, when it returns, to “completely reform” the consultation process.

“One only has to look at recent Consultations in the South Western Trust (Fermanagh Hospital) and Northern Trust (Causeway Coast Hospital) and our own Daisy Hill Hospital where thousands of people voted against Trust proposals and none of them where listened to,” the group stated.

The campaigners believe that the “rationale for reducing essential medical services” can be answered and replied to.

“Doctor / consultants can not maintain their accreditation as the number of operations at Daisy Hill Hospital is too low: All doctors / consultants employed by the Southern Health and Social Services Trust are employed on a Trust wide basis. Surely a rota could be put in place to ensure the medical staff work on a rota which means they work in both Daisy Hill Hospital and Craigavon Area Hospital to ensure they maintain their accreditation?

“Shortage of Doctors / Consultants: This excuse is an indictment on Trust management and their failure to have a proper people management, development and retention strategy.

“Nine consultants left the Trust over a nine month period and there obviously was no strategy in place to replace these staff.

“The Department of Health also have to questioned as they have no strategy in place to stop other Health Trusts over recruiting and therefore preventing small Trusts to attract required medical staff.

“After the horse as bolted the Southern Trust have now gone to Indian to recruit staff, therefore if they had of been serious about maintaining Emergency Surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital they would have put this current recruitment drive in place along time ago.

“Daisy Hill Hospital v Craigavon Area Hospital: The strategy of the Department of Health and Southern Trust to centralise emergency surgery and stroke services at Craigavon Area Hospital once again has to be seriously questioned.

“Craigavon is 20 minutes from Belfast where there are a plethora of excellent hospitals so why provide additional services in Craigavon?

On the other side of the argument people from Newry, South Down, South Armagh and the Border Regions have their lives put at risk by having to travel inordinately longer distances to receive treatment.

“It does not take a genius to ascertain that the current healthcare strategy is to say the least very uncoordinated and is not in keeping with health requirements of the population.”

“Political intervention: At the recent Southern Health and Social Services Board meeting, the only political party to question the decision for the proposed removal of Emergency Surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital was the SDLP.

“This is confusing as during the Consultation period and at the public rallies all political parties active in the Southern Region with the exception of the DUP condemned the removal of emergency surgery. This silence is very worrying for the Hospital as a 24/7/365 watch will be needed to prevent the removal of other services at our beloved Daisy Hill Hospital and for this to happen we need the full continued support of all political parties.

“Politicians have committed their support and we have to hold them to these promises.

“Rural Needs Act: The Northern Ireland Assembly passed the Rural Needs Act to ensure that services in rural areas would be protected and from what we are witnessing during the last number of Health Consultations is a total ripping up of this piece of legislation.

“The legislation is being being totally ignored and it’s like there is no government body to police this piece of legislation.

“During the consultation for the proposed removal of emergency surgery at Daisy Hill, the SOS Committee spoke to the Rural Community Network, an organisation which is funded by the Government to advise and support rural services, and asked them if they had been asked to participate in the current round of Health Consultations. We were not surprised that no one had spoken to them.

“The Trust’s consultation contained a Rural Impact Assessment on how their proposals will impact on rural areas and what mitigating proposals they would implement to minimise the negative impact these proposals would have.

“Not one mitigating proposal was provided and, more embarrassingly for the Trust they stated 'we will learn as we go along'.

“This is totally unacceptable as one death is to many. The Northern Ireland Assembly in the future will have to review the Rural Needs Act and amend accordingly to ensure it has the power to prevent the removal of critical services in rural areas.”

Meanwhile, the SOS committee have welcomed news that over 60 medical staff have been offered jobs following a recruitment drive in India.

However, they add that it opens a number of questions.

“We were told the transfer of stroke and emergency surgery at Daisy Hill was in some instances due to a failure to recruit the necessary medical staff.

“Now we have more than 60 new medical staff coming to the Southern Trust why can these services not be reintroduced?”

The campaigners have also called for better communication from the Trust following a number of unsuccessful FOI requests, saying that “information has been virtually non existent and no information has been forwarded to the community. This lack of communication leads to misinformation and causes fear.

“The Trust keep referring to how they have been coordinating with the Nuffield Trust about their proposals however when we request a copy of this data the Trust have refused to provide same. These actions have lead to many people coming up with conspiracy theories and this is not healthy. Proper exchange of information can be helpful to both the Trust and the community.”

The group now plans to hold a public meeting to “give an opportunity for our political leaders, representatives of the recently commissioned Expert Panel and other organisations to update the community and allow members of the public to ask questions”. Details of this meeting will be published in the press at a later date.