We are many, we are strong and the Law is here to protect our Right to Healthcare
POPULATION NEED IN NEWRY & MOURNE
Newry & Mourne LGD* has always had the highest population; highest number of births and highest number of children aged under 18 of the five localities /LGDs) in the Southern Trust area.
(*See below for info on the 5 LGD populations in the Southern Trust )
Population Need: Newry & District GP Federation
Newry & District with 159,599 patients – has the 2nd Highest number of patients registered with the 17 GP Federations in all NI. (Derry is the highest and Newry & District is the Second Highest. Figures: 2021/22)
Newry & District has the 2nd Highest number of children in NI under 18 (36,117). Figures: 2021/22)
* The Newry & Mourne LGD is still relevant as the former 26 Council Model is still used today in terms of the ‘operational areas’ of the Health and Social Care Trusts in NI.
There are FIVE Local Government Districts (LGDs) in the Southern Trust area. In consistent order of population size since the Southern Health Trust was established in 2007, they rank:
>(1st) Newry & Mourne
>(2nd) Craigavon
>(3rd) Armagh
>(4th) Dungannon
>(5th) Banbridge.
Newry & Mourne LGD has a population of 106,813 with 28,116 (Children Under-18s) (2020 NISRA )
Newry & Mourne LGD has always had the highest population; highest number of births and highest number of children aged under 18 of the five localities /LGDs) in the Southern Trust area.
LAWS WHICH PROTECT YOU RE: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE /PUBLIC SERVICES
>Human Rights Act 1998, (Right to life…etc)
>NI Act 1998, (Section 75 Equality categories including disability, political opinion, race, and so on)
>Fair Treatment and Employment Legislation (Access to premises)
>The Southern Health Social Services Trust (Establishment) Order (NI) 2006
>The Southern Health Social Services Trust (Dissolution Order) (NI) 2006
>Managing Public Money (NI)
We have to pre-pay for our hospital services in Daisy Hill Acute Area Hospital, Newry city through Regional Rates, Taxes and National insurance deductions from our wages so are entitled to value for money.
The Population need in Newry & Mourne and all Laws shown here must be adhered to by all relevant authorities when they commission and/or remove hospital services and accommodation.
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The most urgent Capital Priority and counter proposal when answering the Southern Trust Emergency Surgery Consultation is to build a Major new Specialist Acute Hospital in Newry city – not a community treatment centre.
This Capital Priority needed right now for Newry & Mourne is funding and business plan for a Specialist Acute Hospital building for the area, as agreed at Government level in 2005 so it is LONG overdue.
According to the Southern Trust, the Department of Health NI has allocated £4.5 million to spend on progressing acute health services in Newry city. The Trust says this funding was to purchase a site at Abbey Way, Newry and associated design for a new community treatment centre. But to progress acute services they should be provided in an ACUTE HOSPITAL in Newry just like in Craigavon – not just in a treatment centre. The £4.5million site, at Abbey Way, Newry, is large enough and the ideal place for a NEW Major Specialist Acute Hospital Building.
Official statistics have proven over and over that the large size of the growing population in the long established settlement in Newry & District justifies funding for a new build major Specialist Acute hospital in Newry City, as since 1971, Newry & Mourne LGD has always been in the top 4 highest populations in NI (after Belfast, Lisburn (Greater Belfast) and Derry) and Newry & Mourne LGD is projected to be the 3rd Highest by 2026. (A higher population than Derry) (NISRA)
Funding plans for a new hospital to upgrade Daisy Hill Acute Hospital were announced for Newry by previous Secretary of State, Sir Peter Hain in 2005 to match the population size. This funding has still not been followed up by the Southern Trust in their Capital Priorities Programme submitted to the Department of Health/ DoH, but the population has not forgotten.
Building a new Specialist Acute Area Hospital building in Newry could then complement the Daisy Hill Hospital building, if the intention is to reconfigure Daisy Hill into a ring-fenced elective care centre (instead of a specialist acute hospital) as the Southern Trust have proposed.
The proposed removal of Emergency Surgery from Daisy Hill Acute Hospital, Newry city to Craigavon is forefront in people’s minds. At the recent public meeting in the Canal Court Hotel, the few people who were allowed to speak made it clear to the Southern Trust representatives there that they were totally opposed to removal of emergency surgery, and questioned the Trust’s constant removal of acute services from Newry, as well as the Southern Trust’s failure to provide beds for patients and diagnostic equipment for Staff in Daisy Hill, Newry city.
If the DoH and Southern Trust are now ready to offer some long overdue capital investment to actually provide specialist acute services in a specialist hospital in Newry instead of transferring services, beds and equipment to Craigavon, then the people of Newry & Mourne, South Armagh and surrounding areas may well be interested in their proposals.
If the Southern Trust fail to provide for the Newry & Mourne population, and keep up this policy of transferring specialist services to Craigavon, they will be called out on this as it goes against the Rural Needs Act and other legislation.
Calls for fair treatment can be expressed through talking to Councillors, asking for an emergency Council meeting and through responding in writing to the Consultation on Emergency Surgery.
The Southern Trust need to listen to what we want – not continue telling us what we can’t have.
This is the one and only chance in your lifetime you are ever going to get to write to the Southern Trust what you want, what you pay for through Rates and Taxes, and more importantly what you are entitled to. The Southern Trust have a statutory duty to take into account in their decision making and responses, any suggestions you make in reply to the consultation on removal of emergency surgery from Newry to Craigavon.
That is why when 19,000 people including over 12,000 people from this area opposed the centralisation of Stroke services to Craigavon, Altnagelvin and Belfast the Department of Health couldn’t go ahead with their unfair proposals because of the opposition.
We have a right to challenge the constant removal of Specialist Acute Services especially Emergency Surgery and Emergency Medical Services from Newry to Craigavon.
Daisy Hill for Life is asking people of Newry, Mourne and Down to write NO to the questions in the Southern Trust Consultation Questionnaire on centralising Emergency surgery to Craigavon.
Please also speak/write to your Councillors, MLAs, MPs and Trade Unions asking them for their support in rejecting the Southern Trust’s proposal to remove Emergency Surgery from Daisy Hill Acute Hospital, Newry. (How to contact them : see this page: https://savedaisyhillhospital.com/how-you-can-help/ )
Please also ask for their support for the need for the long overdue Major new Specialist Acute Hospital Building in Newry – not a community treatment centre. A new Major Specialist Acute Hospital building will also bring huge economic benefits to Newry, including construction jobs.
Read how Newry & Mourne Local Government District was incorrectly made to look like the smallest population in Southern Trust area when it was really the largest, in a crucially important Population Plan Table, created in 2013 for the influential ‘Transforming Your Care’ Health Review – Playing with numbers, playing with people’s lives
This article also gives vitally important information on the population sizes of the 5 Local Government Districts which make up the Southern Health and Social Care Trust operational area.
Information on this and other similar topics is also available at the companion Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/daisyhillforlife/ Please Follow or Like the Page to receive updates. Thank you.
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We welcome sharing of this info and the use of excerpts and links, please give full and clear credit to http://www.savedaisyhillhospital.com and Daisy Hill for Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Thank-you.
The Southern Trust’s proposal to centralise Emergency Surgery from Daisy Hill Hospital Type 1 Emergency Department, Newry City, expecting patients needing immediate life saving emergency surgery to go to Craigavon, is not a viable or safe alternative.
As the accompanying ED Attendances Waiting Times Table shows: in the year Jan 2021 to Dec 2021 Craigavon ED had 11,009 patients who had to wait over 12 hours to be seen, discharged or admitted to hospital.
Dr Paul Kerr, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Northern Ireland on a BBC programme on 12 Feb 2022 speaking about long delays and long waits in Emergency Departments in NI in December 2021 said:
“The situation in Emergency Departments in Northern Ireland is dire, the data show that it is very bad indeed. The reality is that patient care is now regularly being compromised, their safety is at risk. “We know that delays and long-waits in Emergency Departments are closely associated with patient harm and poor outcomes. The Royal College’s report ‘Crowding and its Consequences’ found that one in 67 patients waiting for 12 hours or more are associated with avoidable harm or potential death within 30 days.”
It is because nobody knows who is going to need Emergency Surgery or Emergency Medical Care that the Regional Network of Type 1 EDs (in the accompanying Table) were designated IN ALL 10 Acute Hospitals in a FAIR GEOGRAPHICAL provision of Emergency Surgical and Emergency Care across NI.
Centralisation of Emergency surgery from Daisy Hill Acute Hospital, Newry City to Craigavon is not a safe or viable option.
Information on this and other similar topics is also available at the companion Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/daisyhillforlife/ Please Follow or Like the Page to receive updates. Thank you.
Newry & Mourne Local Government District (LGD) has consistently ranked in the Top 4 populations by population size of LGDS in all N. Ireland consistently since 1971 – So where’s the Funding for Daisy Hill Acute Hospital, Newry?
Now is finally the time for proper investment for Daisy Hill, as Newry & Mourne LGD has a population bigger than Antrim LGD, Castlereagh LGD, and also Craigavon LGD, who all have MAJOR ACUTE HOSPITALS ALREADY.
Now is finally the time for proper investment for Daisy Hill, as Newry & Mourne LGD has a population bigger than Antrim LGD, Castlereagh LGD, and also Craigavon LGD, who all have MAJOR ACUTE HOSPITALS ALREADY.
The picture shows the Present configuration of 10 Acute hospitals (red dots) now left in NI in 2019, alongside a Table of the 15 largest population settlements here (Source 2018 NISRA*).
There has been a Hospital on the Daisy Hill Hospital site in Newry since the 19th century, for its growing Population. In 2003 it was officially designated as one of ten out of 19 existing Acute hospitals, under ‘Developing Better Services’ needed for the acute care needs of the people of NI.
But despite Newry & Mourne consistently having the largest LGD population in the operational area of the Southern Trust**, its funding for Acute services and Capital for Redevelopment as a MAJOR ACUTE HOSPITAL has never been equal to the other acute hospital in the Southern Trust, Craigavon.
The 19 acute hospitals in NI in 1995 were reduced to a total of ten after various Dept. of Health Reforms. The LGD populations* or Settlements shown in the Graphic (source NISRA*) would suggest that Population size and need does not seem to drive current funding decisions. Health investment in NI continues to focus on 4-6 Hospitals, instead of the ten designated acute hospitals on the map.
Only 6 URBAN hospitals (Royal, Belfast City, Craigavon, Antrim, Altnagelvin and the Ulster) continue to be allocated major funding.
These 6 hospitals, (from the previous 19) were given major investment as specialist acute hospitals, because of hospital size, NOT based on where the largest LGD/settlements of population lived, [Regional Strategy for 1997 to 2002. – Detail available in previous article, link at the end of piece.]
>DAISY HILL ACUTE HOSPITAL, IN NEWRY & MOURNE LGD IS STILL BEING OVERLOOKED DESPITE BEING THE LARGEST LOCALITY OF ALL 5 LGDs IN SOUTHERN TRUST AREA & FOURTH LARGEST LGD IN N.IRELAND.
Daisy Hill acute Hospital, in Newry & Mourne LGD is still being overlooked for investment and specialist service provision, without explanation.
Official NISRA demographic statistics prove that the population need exists in the area of Newry & Mourne (which includes South Armagh). This LGD has consistently been the FOURTH largest population in NI, as well as the highest locality population of all 5 localities/LGDs in the operational area** of the Southern Health Trust since its inception in 2007.
TIME NOW FOR PROPER INVESTMENT FOR NEWRY & MOURNE LOCALITY ACUTE HOSPITAL, DAISY HILL, INCLUDING INVESTMENT IN STROKE SERVICES, SCANNING EQUIPMENT AND HOSPITAL CAPITAL PRIORITIES
If Health Chiefs and those in charge of funding were to fully realise the actual size of the Newry & Mourne population, from valid NISRA statistics, then changes could be made to rectify the situation and put a stop to the wrong categorisation of Daisy Hill as a ‘smaller’ Hospital, when it should be a large Specialist Acute Hospital to truly reflect the population size and need in the area.
For example Even though the Executive Summary of the Bengoa Report*** P19 stated clearly to the NI Executive “IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE for this report to dictate to people in different parts of Northern Ireland what services they should and should not expect to be located in their area or local hospital” THEY DID EXACTLY THAT in THE FULL BENGOA EXPERT PANEL REPORT (P.73)
In this report all of Northern Ireland was inappropriately dictated to and told as a Local Case Study that Craigavon Area Hospital would be the site for a centralised Specialist Stroke Unit above all other locations in NI. Newry & Mourne’s population were also publicly inappropriately dictated to, that they would only get stroke rehabilitation in a community setting instead of retention of the existing Specialist Acute/Rehabilitation Stroke Unit in Daisy Hill acute Hospital.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE & PROPER INVESTMENT
The Newry & Mourne population was left out of plans for future investment for a NEW hospital, left out of the NI 2019 Reshaping Stroke Services Options and IGNORED when it came to funding and long term future investment for CT, MRI and non obstetric scanners but NOW IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE.
>NOW is the time for proper investment (with Rebates) for Newry & Mourne and Daisy Hill Hospital as a Specialist Acute Hospital NOW, just as had been intended under Government Backed Report in 2003 and Strategic Investment Report in 2005 which had Secretary of State backing.
PLEASE SHARE WIDELY
Please Share widely – with your help this info could reach the right people with the power to make the necessary changes, such as the new Health Minister Mr Robin Swann MLA and new Finance Minister Mr Conor Murphy MLA. Please keep supporting Daisy Hill Hospital for Life!
< BACKGROUND INFORMATION >
Reference * NISRA is the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency ; https://www.nisra.gov.uk/
IMPORTANT INFO ON LGDs AND COUNCILS
Despite the fact that there are now 11 Councils in Northern Ireland in 2020, the (former) 26 council model is still relevant today for the purpose of Health Funding.
NISRA continues to also provide populations by HSC Trusts aggregated from the former 26 local government districts. These 26 former LGDs remain named in legislation as the ‘operational areas’ of the Health and Social Care Trusts in NI according to the Establishment Orders 2006.
Reference ** The 5 LGDs named in the’ OPERATIONAL AREA’ of the Southern Health and Social Services Trust (SHSCT) – in order of population size since the start of the Southern Trust in 2007 were in 2018 : Newry & Mourne (105,693); Craigavon ( 101,489); Armagh (62,976); Dungannon (62,666), and Banbridge(50,717) NISRA 2018 * Note: Newry & Mourne is ONE single LGD.
<Important>:
There are 5 LGDs/localities in SHSCT – NOT 3 Localities or Local Government Districts.
They are as follows:
(1) Newry & Mourne: ONE LGD,
(2) Craigavon: one LGD
(3) Banbridge: one LGD ,
(4) Armagh one LGD,
and (5) Dungannon :one LGD.
THERE IS NO SUCH LGD/LOCALITY AS ‘ARMAGH/DUNGANNON’ or ‘CRAIGAVON/BANBRIDGE.’
Southern Trust/ SLCG Populations
1995 Southern Trust /Southern Local Commissioning Group SLCG Populations: Newry & Mourne (84,035); Craigavon (77,689); Armagh (52,675); Dungannon (46,958) and Banbridge(37,427) NISRA 1995.
2010 Southern Trust/ SLCG Populations: Newry & Mourne (99,900); Craigavon (93,600); Armagh (59,400); Dungannon (57,700) and Banbridge(48,000). NISRA MYE 2010
Information on this and other similar topics is also available at the companion Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/daisyhillforlife/ – Thank you. Please Follow or Like the Page to receive updates.
Daisy Hill Hospital for Life 