Health campaigners draw up A&E petition

Health campaigners draw up A&E petition

25 September 2024

HEALTH campaigners are drawing up plans for a district-wide petition calling for enhanced emergency care services at the Downe Hospital.

The Down Community Health Committee is to set up a sub-group to take forward the initiative and draw up the petition wording and plan its distribution and collection before being formally presented to the Assembly.

Campaigners say they have nothing but praise for the “amazing” nurses and medical staff at the hospital and are grateful for all that they do, despite the challenges of the health system they are working in.

Last month, the Recorder reported how Downpatrick woman Phil Pendergast waited for over ten hours at the Ulster Hospital’s emergency department after she was rushed there suffering from a severe stomach pain.

Branding the department an “utter disgrace”, she subsequently left the hospital exhausted and fed up to go home without seeing a doctor owing to a family commitment.

Mrs Prendergast decided to speak out in the hope that something will be done to reduce the time people have to wait in A&E departments.

She said the delay was not the fault of doctors and nurses, who were being made to work in what she described as “an intolerable environment”.

Mrs Prendergast said while aware her case was not the worst scenario and that many people have had to wait longer, there is a need to speak out and say this is not on.

Her comments resonated with Mrs Patricia Watterson, who has asked the health committee to consider launching a district-wide petition which it is enthusiastically committed to doing.

In a letter to the group she said the population of Downpatrick has rocketed over the past decade, with recent proposals to build an additional 1,100 new homes on the outskirts of the town which is surrounded by a huge hinterland of villages and townlands.

Mrs Watterson said people were being directed to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald in an accident or medical emergency situation with the sheer numbers turning up causing an “unacceptable and dangerous delay” in getting treatment, with 12 or 14 hours in an ambulance the new norm.

She said ambulances were queued up outside the hospital and patients could not be admitted.

Mrs Watterson claimed Downe Hospital was underused and was well equipped with X-ray services and scanners, which could detect something serious, requiring the patient to be sent to the Ulster.

She said that before Covid the Downe had a fully functioning A&E service which was “coping beautifully” before its use was limited for a temporary period and a minor injuries unit introduced.

Horror

“Everyone has their own horror story about the Ulster A&E, one of which was recently highlighted in the Down Recorder and Facebook is awash with horror stories too. We have all similar experiences having to give up and come home after a 12-hour wait, still not having been seen through no fault of the overworked staff.

“Downpatrick has had enough and meetings and complaints with the local health trust fall on deaf ears, so it’s time to speak up and highlight our frustration about the attitudes,” she said.

Mrs Watterson is proposing a huge petition with forms distributed to every relevant venue, including schools, churches, restaurants, sports clubs and online.

“If the petition is ignored and we don’t get any satisfactory response we have plans for further action,” her letter adds.

Health committee chairman Eamonn McGrady said work on the petition would start now and would be led by committee member Aidan Harris.

He said the online response to what happened to Mrs Pendergast shone a light on the number of people who are having totally bad experiences because there is no properly resourced, 24/7 emergency services in Downpatrick serving the area.

Downpatrick Sinn Fein councillor Oonagh Hanlon, who works in South Down MLA Cathy Mason’s office, said she had never seen so many complaints concerning health services.

She said local health chiefs had expressed an interest in extending the opening hours of the Downe Hospital’s urgent care centre following a proposal by South Down MP Chris Hazzard but this has not happened yet.

“A petition will give people a voice and they will feel they are being heard and we should encourage it,” Cllr Hanlon added.

Mr John Carson said while the petition was a good idea, the “excellent work and professionalism” of the nurses and medical staff at the Downe must also be highlighted.