COMMUNITY News
Campaigners win for Daisy Hill
Unite-sponsored mural on Canal Street In the spring, Southern Health & NI Social Care Trust management twice threatened suspension of A&E cover at Newry’s Daisy Hill Hospital.
Local campaigners had successfully defeated previous proposals to close down a Stroke Unit in the hospital, and they warned that – far from being simply a response to staffing shortages – the threatened A&E suspension was just the latest step in a plan to downgrade the hospital as part of the Department’s longstanding ‘Golden Six’ acute hospital agenda.
Any decision to close Daisy Hill A&E would force patients to travel from as far away as Annalong to the nearest emergency service at Craigavon.
In response, a new ‘Save our Emergency Department’ organised a public meeting to demand continued 24-7 A&E cover at
Daisy Hill. Around 1,000 people attended the meeting at the Canal Court Hotel, followed a few days later by a protest at the Trust Board meeting in Craigavon for which Unite provided free buses.
Around a dozen protesters were allowed to attend the Trust meeting where A&E consultant Donal Duffin alleged that a premium was being paid to junior doctors to work in Craigavon instead of Newry. Dr Duffin also showed that the SHSCT had not advertised for staff for Newry while repeatedly advertising for Craigavon. These claims directly contradicted the Trust’s assertion that the threatened closure was due to insufficient staffing.
The SHSCT chair’s response was to convene a ‘summit’ in early May which was closed to the public. Afterwards the Trust announced that it had secured sufficient NHS support to ‘sustain 24/7 emergency
16 uniteWORKS Summer 2017
services at Daisy Hill’.
Although this U-turn was welcomed, seasoned campaigners warned that a verbal assurance was no substitute for castiron guarantees: an ongoing people power campaign was needed to ensure adequate resources are ring-fenced and the guarantees extended to include the Daisy Hill fracture which is also under threat. In addition, campaigners are demanding a full public response to Dr Duffin’s allegations.
Local activists are determined to keep the pressure on. On 12 May Unite’s Newry Community Branch unveiled a new ‘Hands Off Daisy Hill’ Mural on Canal Street, followed a day later by a large rally for Daisy Hill in the town. Led by Unite community and industrial members, campaigners stand ready to respond if and when any further threats to local hospital provision are made.