People Before Profit rep for Newry and Armagh Marc Mac Seáin commends the organisers of the Save Daisy Hill public meeting which saw hundreds in attendance.
“We have unfortunately been down this road before with the hospital. It’s not the first time we have been at a public meeting in Newry like this. Each time the cuts get deeper. We are well down the path of "Managed Decline", of "Reform", Centralisation. We need to practically change course, or else Daisy Hill’s Emergency Department will be next.
“We need demands which cannot be ignored, to be put to all parties, trust and ministries. To Stormont, Dáil and Westminster. For instance we need:
- 2016’s Bengoa Report needs revoked and replaced.
- Change to consultant & general staff work procedures, not siloing them off into individual hospitals or Trusts but at least regional but ideally all-Island fair distribution.
- An all-island hospital configuration, service distribution. System wide collaboration between health services North-South.
- Acknowledgement administratively that Daisy Hill is the area hospital not just for South Armagh, South Down, Newry but for Dundalk, Castleblaney, East Monaghan, North Louth.
- A Health Minister committed to all of the above. If this is unable to be secured with the current minister, other parties should take up that commitment.
“Frankly in People Before Profit we do not think Stormont is fit for purpose. Society in the North of Ireland is crumbling after decades of austerity, underinvestment. Yet Stormont can act to help stabilise the Southern Trust & other Trusts, outside the current partitioned parameters. If Stormont wants to hang onto any shred of legitimacy it must ensure patients in Newry, Enniskillen, Craigavon get equal, safe treatment just as anyone else.
“I think we need to shift tactics to achieve these demands, so we can’t be ignored. 150k workers went on strike in January 2024 to bring Stormont back, and it was returned within weeks. It’s done nothing to fix our health service yet our unions should be exploring the possibility of emergency industrial action to force change. Beyond that we can look to the fuel protests as an example of how to force an issue to be addressed. If direct action is required to save Maternity at Daisy Hill, so be it.
“Join the mass rally on Sunday 25th October in Newry. We have to get tens of thousands of people on the streets. Show your support for your hospital before they 'temporarily' remove maternity services.”