Residents in South Belfast are to launch a “major campaign to defend the accident and emergency unit at Belfast City Hospital”.
Speaking to the Assembly Health Committee, Minister for Health Edwin Poots indicated that A&E services would no longer be provided at the City Hospital. Now residents have planned a campaign to challenge the threat to the South Belfast A&E service.
“We will not accept this attack on our health service” announced Paddy Meehan of the Stop the Cuts Campaign. “The waiting lists and pressure on A&E units across the Belfast is already at crisis point. Closing A&E units will lead to an impossible strain and people will pay with their lives. People in Belfast deserve local services. Many people are not comfortable travelling further for treatment, especially as sectarianism has not disappeared.
“The Minister claims that City Hospital is moving to more planned surgeries and procedures is ludicrous. It was only last year the City’s emergency surgery team was removed due to cuts. The closure of A&E at the City is a step towards closing the City Hospital and must be determinedly resisted by the entire community.
The Stop the Cuts Campaign has also called for people in Lisburn to “organise a campaign to fight the the cut in opening hours at Laganvalley Hospital which will force people to travel further out of hours, putting lives at risk.”
For more info contact Paddy Meehan on 07598501040
The Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey closed in May. Now all patients in the Northern Trust area have to travel to the Antrim Area Hospital. The Antrim Hospital was widely accepted to be under immense pressure before these closures. The situation will deteriorate further now, with even longer waiting times for casualty treatment and even more patients spending hours or days on trolleys. Prior to this latest cutback the Northern Trust had halted more complex surgery at the Mid-Ulster Hospital and Whiteabbey Hospital and concentrated it at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Both smaller hospitals are no longer acute hospitals, dealing with a full range of illness, and accessible to the surrounding population.
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