Speaking today, South Down SDLP Westminster candidate, Margaret Ritchie has urged the Minister for Health JIm Wells to reject and bin the section of the Donaldson report which deals with the rationalisation and centralisation of hospital services in Northern Ireland, and to re-locate medical and health services from the Ulster Hospital to the Downe Hospital.
As the Down Community Health Committee also await arrangements for a meeting with the Health Minister and local campaigners are champing at the bit to get their case heard at the highest level, Ms Ritchie said: “I urge the Minister for Health to instruct his Departmental officials and senior management within the South Eastern Trust to reject the section within the Donaldson report on health service re-organisation which favours the centralisation of hospital services within the Belfast area.
“This is exactly the same centralist mantra that has been in existence in the Department of Health for decades that favours the location of all major and minor health services within hospitals in large urban conurbations and does not appreciate the health and medical needs of rural communities such as Down and Mourne. Quite clearly, the provision of health services is not dictated by the needs of the patients.
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South Down MP Margaret Ritchie.[/caption]
“The centralisation plan for hospitals in Northern Ireland unveiled and promoted in the Donaldson report which has gone out for consultation is a further example of the prevailing Belfast hospitals attitude within the Department of Health where they use consultants to pump prime their own centralist diktat and philosophy which has led to the over provision of acute services in hospitals in Belfast.
“To achieve the principles of local accessibility to services delivered at the point of need and equity of access to those services, then the Minister for Health and his officials need to pay heed to the will of the people of Down and Mourne which is demanding that:* the existing services are sustained in the Downe Hospital;
* a range of new services are re-located to the hospital which accommodates a high level of technology.
“In fact, I gave the Minister for Health the list of potential services that could be re-located from the Ulster Hospital to the Downe some months ago. Has the Minister acted upon this list? Has he talked to the senior management in the South Eastern HSC Trust? Has he instructed the South Eastern Trust officials to re-direct services which could utilise high level technology in the Downe Hospital theatres through the use of clinical networking?
“The local population are totally justified in demanding such services. The Minister for Health must allow the will of the people to prevail. That will encompasses the need to develop and enhance our local hospital in Downpatrick into the “enhanced local hospital” which was envisaged in the Business Plan which was approved back in 2003. “I now hope that the Minister for Health takes the reigns within the Department of Health and also ensures that medical services that can be re-located from the Ulster Hospital to the Downe Hospital actually take place.“The Ulster Hospital site is very restricted. The new Downe Hospital has two theatres which possess the highest level of medical technology and should be utilised. The South Eastern Trust should not only be protecting, but also using it’s assets such as the new Downe Hospital to their optimum potential. I will raising this issue yet again with the Minister for Health this week”, added Ms Ritchie.
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