By Ryan Sands
A PETITION seeking the restoration of 24/7 emergency department (ED) services at Downe Hospital has been signed by over 14,000 people.
The Down Community Health Committee launched the initiative in May and, on Friday, gathered the signatures together to present to local political representatives, who in turn aim to personally hand them over to Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.
However, a degree of uncertainty surrounds how this will eventually happen, given that a Department of Health response to local MLAs Cathy Mason (Sinn Féin) and Colin McGrath (SDLP) – which was read out at Friday’s event – advised that it “wouldn’t normally have a ministerial meeting to receive a petition” and that “petitions can be left with the security staff at the front door of Castle Buildings and will be collected by Private Office staff and brought to the minister’s attention”.
Speaking at last week’s event in Downpatrick’s Denvir’s Hotel, committee chair Eamonn McGrady said that he thought the correspondence “speaks so loudly about the Department of Health that no further comment from me about it is necessary”.
“We have 14,000 people who have signed already and expressed their view,” he stated. “Obviously, the big point today is that we have had an enormously successful petition with many, many thousands of signatures from the people who pay for health services. The taxpayers and ratepayers of this area expressed their view, in the same way that people have been doing, increasingly doing so, down in Newry and for the South West Area Hospital, where campaign groups are becoming very, very active, as the communities start to take ownership of their own healthcare, because they don’t trust what they are being told by officialdom.”
Mr McGrady then read out a statement from Mrs Mason, who had been unable to attend on Friday.
“I wanted you to know that it is very important to me that my support for this campaign and for the Downe Hospital is clearly heard,” she said. “Thank you to everyone who organised the petition and to all those who signed it. The message is very clear – the Downe Hospital needs to have its services restored. This isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it’s essential for the people of Downpatrick and the wider area.”
The MLA added that local representatives are “determined to make sure this petition reaches the minister and that the voices of this community are heard one way or another.”
“Thank you again for your resistance and your determination,” she concluded. “I will keep standing with you and fighting for the Downe Hospital and the services this area deserves.”
