Archive for the 'Health / Local Services' Category
Astonishingly Down District Council had no submission ready for the last council meeting the Monday before the official responses have to be in. Councillors and management were left scrambling for a last-minute response thanks to the opposition of the SDLP to a cross-party approach to the councils submission.
Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright challenged the SDLP to end their opposition to a cross-party approach to the new Hospital campaign at On Wednesday 18th July at The Downe Community Health Committee meeting in Denvirs.
Cadogan (on right hand side of pic) pointed out that when the SDLP voted down the cross-party motion on 6th June last proposed by himself the DUP and SF it left the Chief executive with no authorisation to
1. use council resources to build a professional submission on behalf of the council as a whole,
2. stopped him accessing the £30,000 budget to hire professionals to advise the council
3. and prevented him from consulting the DCHC on the councils submission.
The SDLP were represented by Margaret Ritchie and Colin McGrath (sitting beside Cadogan), and despite being asked twice to fix this problem in the interests of the whole community, they refused to respond on this point.
Cadogan warned the SDLP that the council would be hamstrung on the hospital issue unless the SDLP cooperated with the other parties on this point.
Cllr Cadogan Enright’s concerns were borne out at the council meeting of Monday 23rd July when the chief executive of the council announced that (with 4 days to go before the deadline) the council had nothing ready and nobody ear-marked to do the job – 3 months into the consultation process.
Fortunately the consultation period was extended to the 17th September – this allows the council time to make up lost ground – see next posting on Hospital Campaign Page.
Cllr Enright updated the Downe Community Health Committee (DCHC) on the Facebook campaign launched by local person Barry Magee and now maintained by Barry, Mark McCormick and a number of other local people to which over 1800 mostly younger people have signed.
DCHC leaders Eamonn McGrady and Dick Shannon commented at the meeting that this was a vital new development and they needed the skills of the younger generation to reach the thousands of people in the District who now used ‘new media’.
Cllr Enright was then asked to approach Barry and Mark to see if they would agree to have their Facebook campaign become the official online campaign of the DCHC, to which they agreed.
To join the Facebook campaign click here:
Save Downe Hospital’s 24-hour Accident & Emergency (A&E) Services
Cllr Enright, Dick Shannon, John McAllister MLA, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.
Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright assisted Dick Shannon DCHC leader in travelling from Ardglass to the Ulster Hospital to attend a Board meeting of the South Eastern Health Trust in Newtownards. They witnessed Lisburn City Council putting thier case for transferring services to Lagan Valley.
The meeting also allowed Dick Shannon of the Down Community Health Committee to the meeting listen to the update on the consultation process by Trust Project Managers for the three hospitals under review- Downe, Lagan Valley and Ulster- gave a report on current consultations and progress on these so-called “reforms”.
After viewing the Lisburn City Council presentation in support of transferring services to Lagan Valley Hospital, Cllr Enright said ‘Down District Council has a lot of work to do to get our counter argument up to the same standard.’
South Down UUP MLA John McAllister also spoke at the meeting. Cllr Enright said ‘John McAllister spoke well on the location of acute mental health services but seemed a litle weak on maintaining the consultant led A+E Department. I said to him that we should not allow the Trust to use difficulty in recruitment as an excuse to downgrade A+E. ”
“That being said, John is miles ahead of UUP Councillors in Down District who have simply rolled over in the face of the Trust”, he stated.
A proposal for a shuttle-bus to the Downe Hospital from Downpatrick bus station by Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright at last Tuesdays meeting of Down District Council met with cross-party support. Several councillors were unaware that there had been a failure by the Trust and Translink to follow through on a bus-stop outside the hospital entrance. The original plans for the hospital envisaged a shuttle-bus service, but this had not been delivered.
Councillor Enright said, “Dropping people off on the main road makes no sense, especially where wheelchairs have to be pushed up the long ramp to the hospital. It costs at least £3 to get a taxi from the Bus Station up to the hospital doors if you are unwell or wheel chair bound. There is actually the stump of a bus stop outside the hospital where people had thought the actual bus stop was going to be, as well as an all-weather awning for buses to pull up under near the front door.”
Addressing the council meeting, Cllr Enright said, “In addition to the Town Bus, we need the promised shuttle service serving the hospital to the front door so that anyone in Down District can be sure that they can easily use public transport to access the hospital. The Ardglass bus service should be able to pull up at the hospital as well, rather than just passing along the main road. I have discussed this matter with Translink Management in Newcastle and have been told that Translink costed a 15 minutes service for the Hospital two years ago but as no offer of finance was forthcoming from the Department of Health they were forced to implement this service via the Town bus in what I consider to be an unsatisfactory manner. Translink are reluctant to let the town service go up to the door of the hospital for fear it would cause delay to the town service”.
Cllr Enright was seconded by Liam Johnston of Sinn Fein and the motion was passed for council management to get the Trust and Translink working together again and find solutions to this problem. Cllr Johnston noted that the overwhelming number of patients arriving at the hospital at the moment come by car, and there to integrate the bus service with local public transport services.
“I have raised this issue with the community based Downe Community Health Committee who have promised me that they will also be making representations on this issue as it is vital that we integrate our key transport and health infrastructure to ensure long term sustainability of the new hospital,” concluded Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright.
AS the new Downe hospital in Downpatrick was being officially opened by Health Minister Michael McGimpsey, the Green Party joined the cross community protest held outside which was organised by the Downe Community Health Committee.
Downpatrick Green Party councillor Cadogan Enright condemned Trust management as “incompetent and unfit to run any organisation, let alone the hospitals within the trust area.”
Cadogan Enright said “The business case for the €64 Million hospital was consulted on. The new hospitals role in the overall trust agreed, the funds were drawn down and the state-of –the-Art facility was built last year. Management are now saying they forgot to ensure that Consultants in the Ulster and in Belfast were required to provide services at the new hospital, that Trust cardiactic technicians don’t have it in their contracts that they may have to run clinics at the Downe and that they can find no staff to hire in the midst of the worst recession and greatest level of unemployment world-wide for a generation. Thus they are cutting back on a whole raft of services.”
Green Cllr Enright said “Management is supposed to manage, we have known the plan for the new hospital for years, why is it news to them that they needed to plan ahead for staffing the hospital?”.
“More worryingly, Trust management are now building an new acute mental health unit at Lagan Valley Hospital in Antrim, and suggesting that the new 25-bed unit here in Downpatrick be closed within 2 years starting immediately with 5 beds and services transfer up to Lagan Valley. Downpatrick has always been a centre of “best practice” for mental health and the skills exist to run it exist in this area and in our new unit at the Downe. This is an appalling waste of taxpayers money and smacks of “ABCD” – “Anywhere But County Down”. Said Cllr Enright.
Cllr Cadogan Enright warned that “Over the weekend it has emerged that the failure to recruit for the consultant-led accident and emergency unit is leading to the Trust wanting to downgrade the A&E unit at the Downe and shut it at night-time after 10pm. The Trust is threatening us by saying that if they don’t act now, it could result in the sudden closure of the unit resulting from having the wrong staff in place as happened in Whiteabbey. The obvious answer is to get the right staff in place. “
“I have worked as a manager in businesses large and small for over 30 years, and I have never encountered less management ability in the implementation of a plan of any kind than I have with the Trust managements inability to deliver the vision and services proposed for the new hospital. Given that the Trust is repeatedly suggesting that either the Lagan or the Ulster Hospitals will provide the various services planned for the Downe, I feel we have to start considering if there a section 75 or equality issues to be addressed in the overall management of this project”, concluded Green Councillor Cadogan Enright.
Downpatrick Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright stated that he had been informed by staff at the Downe Hospital of a new proposal from the SEHSCT (South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust) to close the new 25 bed acute psychiatric assessment unit at the Downe.
Speaking at a Community Meeting in Ardglass Cllr Enright said, “my sources tell me that senior management informed staff that the new 25 bed unit was to close within two years with 5 of these beds going in the next 6 months. It is apparently proposed to merge this service in Lagan Valley Hospital in Co. Antrim. It is claimed that no redundancies are proposed so presumably staff will be expected to commute to other trust hospitals in Antrim and in Belfast – adding to the five and half thousand people that have to commute out of Down District every day to get to work.”
Cllr Enright continued, “Vulnerable people are more likely to recover quickly with the support of family and friends. It is easier to persuade people at risk to enter a local unit. Demand is increasing for these sorts of services with alcohol and drug abuse particularly creating issues among the young.
Cllr Cadogan Enright said, “This appears to be another series of ‘stealth cuts’ aimed at closing the new Downe Hospital even before it has a chance to establish itself. Local people will remember how the Finneston House 40 bed acute psychiatric assessment unit was closed when the new 25 bed unit was opened on the 28th June 2009 in the new Downe hospital. Some people will remember how the reduced number of beds was justified by a supposed provision of ‘robust care in the community’.
Cllr Enright pointed out “Minister McGimpsey said last Tuesday that he did not have the resources to support care in the community and that these cuts where made ‘in Northern Ireland,’ and not part of the Lib-Con cuts impending from Westminster”.
“I call on all local community activists and political representatives to work together to oppose the cuts in acute psychiatric services and to campaign for robust care in the community. The Downpatrick area needs to maintain its status as a centre of excellence for mental health care – It will be a massive loss to the district if this strategic employment base was lost,” concluded Green Party Cllr Enright.
DOWN Councillor Cadogan Enright has made a protest to the NI Assembly Heath Committee on its first visit to the new Downe Hospital in Downpatrick. He issued committee members with a letter calling on a “fair chance” for the hospital to establish itself.The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust has responded to Councillor Enright protest.
To: Assembly Health committee members.
“I attach a letter copied to me revealing new cuts at the Downe Hospital in cardiac testing – a vital facility for the people of this area.
“This is predicated on a management failure to recruit and train staff that will supposedly be remedied in 6 months time. What type of planning goes on across the Health Service in NI that leads to these repeated crises so often related to staffing issues?
“The letter justifies the Trust’s position on the basis that similar cut-backs occurred in Lisburn at the Lagan Valley Hospital with no issues. However, people in Lisburn have easy access to the City Hospital, Royal, Mater and Craigavon Hospitals with access via good roads.
“People in Killough, Ardglass and Strangford town have no such easy access to the Ulster Hospital which is much harder to reach. Even people in Newcastle and Downpatrick find the Ulster Hospital hard to reach and there is no public transport.
Jim Wells, chairman of the NI Assembly Health Committee receives a written protest from Councillor Cadogan Enright. Included, centre, is Barbara Haig, Green Party member.
“The letter talks about “Enhanced links with Ulster Cardiology…and Ulster Cardiologists” – this is symptomatic of the malaise in the Health Service in NI as a whole. How can consultants be linked to one hospital only? Why are they not conducting clinics at hospitals around NI? Why are they not described as “Trust Consultants?”
“Our local Downe Hospital is not being given a fair chance to establish itself, and is suffering from dozens of small cuts that cumulatively will create a crisis around numbers attending it as people are forced to attend other hospitals for services that should be available locally.
“Even the bus service to the new hospital fails to stop outside the hospital entrance, leaving sick and disabled people having to walk out of the hospital grounds or looking for taxis.
“Our community values the rapid access to the chest pain clinic so much so that when this service was launched in the Old Downe just a few years ago, it was the local community that paid for the equipment.
“The protection of local hospitals is fundamental to the Green Party Agenda. I will do everything in my power to protect and enhance the Downe, and I particularly call on local politicians on the Assembly Health committee to do the same.
“I call on the Assembly Health Committee to insist that the Downe be allowed to properly re-establish itself and commit itself to the support of local services in Downpatrick and elsewhere around NI,”
Signed, Councillor Cadogan Enright, Green Party 20th May 2010
(Downpatrick, Ardglass, Killough, Ballyhornan and Strangford Town).
