Stroke victims are to be diverted away from Daisy Hill hospital thanks to escalating pressures blamed on staff shortages, it has been announced.
The Southern Health Trust says it has taken the decision “on patient safety grounds” amid ongoing recruitment issues at the Newry hospital.
A number of senior medics have left the hospital, the Trust says. The news the day after Dr Tom Black told The Commons Northern Ireland Committee “we have simply do not have a enough doctors for patient need”.
Read more: Newry council HQ Daisy Hill transfer plans to go public as a 'priority'
Latest Department of Health figures, from March this year, show that there are “7,392 vacancies actively being recruited across
Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland, equating to a vacancy rate of 8.7%”.
In their statement today, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust “outlined actions being taken to address significant challenges in medical staffing”.
They added: “Recruiting and retaining medical staff has been a major issue in Daisy Hill Hospital in recent years. The pressures have now escalated with increasing reliance on medical locum cover and a number of consultant medical staff ending their tenure at the hospital.
“These challenges are putting services at the hospital - such as respiratory and gastrointestinal (GI) inpatient medical provision – at risk. Every avenue is being pursued to protect services.
“In addition, as there are insufficient substantive stroke consultants at Daisy Hill, the decision has been taken on patient safety grounds to again divert all acute stroke patients to Craigavon Area Hospital. This will come into effect from 9am on 31 May. The same measure was taken in February due to unforeseen staffing issues.”
Speaking at the monthly Trust Board meeting in Newry, Chief Executive Dr Maria O’Kane set out the challenges with medical staffing - across the Trust in some specialties and particularly at Daisy Hill Hospital.
Dr O’Kane said: “The regional and international shortage of consultants, difficulties recruiting specialist grade and junior doctors and the serious over-reliance on locum doctors are matters of great concern in meeting the demand for acute inpatient medicine and providing stable medical staffing cover in our medical wards.
“This situation is certainly not unique to Daisy Hill Hospital. The shortage of medical staff is extremely challenging in Northern Ireland, and indeed further afield.”
Dr O’Kane added: “We continue to pursue every viable option to minimise the impact of this situation and stabilise our workforce.
“We are also working with other Trusts in Northern Ireland and the Department of Health to help us through this situation. A meeting will take place next week involving all Trusts to seek support to address these challenges. However, it needs to be recognised that medical staffing is already stretched across Craigavon Area and other NI hospitals, so any support is likely to be limited. Our initial focus will be to stabilise staffing for the summer months in anticipation of a more permanent solution.
“Ensuring patient safety and supporting our staff will be absolute priorities. We are very proud of the care provided by our medical staff, who have been working in very difficult circumstances.
“We have also engaged Nuffield Trust to review acute medicine locally across our hospitals and using their recommendations to address the challenges, to support the development of services into the future.”
Reacting to the news today, BMA NI Council chair Dr Tom Black said: “Today’s announcement that some services are being withdrawn from Daisy Hill Hospital is extremely worrying. Acute medical services at the hospital look increasingly precarious. Transformation due to service collapse benefits neither patients nor doctors and destabilises services for patients.
“There will be a knock-on effects on services in Craigavon Hospital and any further attrition would impact GP services in the area as well, thus putting unacceptable pressure on different parts of the health service.
“BMA have consistently warned that without investment in our workforce people would walk away, and the situation at Daisy Hill is evidence of that failure.
“If we do not support our staff and ensure they are valued, then we will lose them. If we do not give staff the chance to develop and use their skills, then they will go elsewhere to work.
“But to be clear, if we do not pay our staff properly and in a way that is comparable to other nations both in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere, then we simply will not be able to recruit or retain staff. The idea that this year we will not even see the DDRB recommended pay uplift applied is frankly unbelievable.
“It was said yesterday that the health service was collapsing, and we can quite clearly see that happening right now, right in front of us. We cannot afford to go one more day without a local health minister in place to attempt to address these issues. The situation is grave and there needs to be action immediately.”
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