Appointment-only urgent care centre opens in Downe

Appointment-only urgent care centre opens in Downe

21 October 2020

THE Downe Hospital’s new urgent care centre opened for business on Monday morning.

Health chiefs had originally planned to reinstate the hospital’s emergency department at the start of the week but, in an eleventh hour move, revealed that it could not fully restore this service due to a number of factors, including staffing issues.

The new consultant-led urgent care centre can only be accessed on an appointment basis and will operate five days a week between 8am and 6pm.

Despite its decision not to reopen the emergency department, senior health officials insist that they remain committed to the Downpatrick hospital.

While they gave a commitment in the summer to restore local A&E services, Trust officials say that they have experienced further staffing challenges and were no longer able to fully restore  emergency services to pre-Covid levels.

In addition, health officials say they are not in a position to confirm when the Downe’s A&E service will be reinstated.

Emergency services were temporarily removed from the Downe at the end of March to allow health officials to prepare for the Covid-19 with politicians and campaigners accusing hospital administrators of using the pandemic as a “camouflage to close services”.

Politicians and health campaigners have voiced concern about the absence of detail in relation to the staffing issues the health trust is experiencing, with warnings that key services at the Downpatrick hospital cannot be “cannibalised” to prop up services in Lisburn and Belfast.

They are also alarmed that the decision not to reopen the Downe’s A&E will place increased pressure on the Ambulance Service which has confirmed that it has no plans to increase its current level of cover across the district where response times have been heavily criticised.

Former South Down MP Baroness Margaret Ritchie said the Downe Hospital needs a fully functional emergency department which must be reinstated at an early opportunity.

She said while the urgent care centre is now open, the range of services on offer are not dissimilar to those delivered by the hospital’s minor injuries unit.

Baroness Ritchie said health officials have confirmed that in addition to a consultant in charge at the new urgent care centre, he will be supported by two nurses, two emergency nurse practitioners and a number of support staff. 

“With such a high range of consultant medical and nursing staff, is it not possible to offer acute emergency services as well with areas zoned for covid and non-covid patients,” she asked.

“If this were to be permitted, then clinical interventions could take place at the Downe, rather than having patients endure a journey with possibly a lot of pain to the Ulster Hospital.”

Lady Ritchie confirmed that she has asked South Eastern Trust chief executive, Seamus McGoran, to give this particular request “positive and favourable consideration” and explain why nursing and medical staff have to be moved from the Downpatrick hospital to update staffing levels at the Ulster and Lagan Valley hospitals.

“Surely such an initiative could work in the opposite direction with nursing and medical staff re-allocated to the Downe Hospital,” she suggested.

“Mr McGoran has informed me that the new urgent care centre at the Downe will receive ambulances ‘as appropriate’ which will be determined through clinical triage but does this mean that a lot of patients, depending on their clinical needs, will be transferred to the Ulster and could by-pass the Downe with assessments taking place in advance via telephone?”

Lady Ritchie said she “cannot fathom” how this will work successfully if some patients are very ill and in need of urgent attention. 

She added: “Emergency ambulance provision is insufficient in the Down and Mourne area to deal with such needs and I will be pursuing both of these issues with the health minister Robin Swann and the South Eastern Trust.

“Undoubtedly, the existing nursing and medical staff at the Downe are very professional in the execution of their duties I have direct experience of their high level of expertise.”

Lady Ritchie added: “The staff need to be supported by the health trust and enabled along with the consultant-led staff to undertake emergency department functions to provide a much-needed service to the people of Down and Mourne. I hope that both the Trust and Department of Health will allow this to take place in the short term”.

The telephone number for the new urgent care centre is 028 4483 8091 with those contacting the service triaged and offered an appointment within the urgent care service or directed to the most appropriate service.