The Southern Health Trust is drawing up emergency plans to save the maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry following concerns the service will be suspended before a solution can be reached.
The Health Trust has said they don’t wish to pull the service but that they were conducting ongoing work “on how best to stabilise the service”.
In a statement provided to UTV News, a spokesperson for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust said: “The Southern Trust provides an area wide maternity and gynaecology service, across the community and from our two hospital sites – Daisy Hill Hospital and Craigavon Area Hospital.
“Like many other specialties throughout health and social care, obstetrics and gynaecology services have been facing growing staffing challenges, impacting midwifery and consultant teams.
“We greatly appreciate the flexibility of the whole obstetric and gynaecology team and dedication to women, mothers and babies in difficult circumstances.
“Work is ongoing to assess how best we can stabilise and safely sustain maternity and gynaecology services across the Trust area.
“We appreciate the ongoing support of families and the public as we work through these challenges.”
The potential closure of the hospital’s maternity services comes one year after a group seeking to rescue their maternity services at a Causeway Hospital in Londonderry “progressed towards legal action”.
The Department of Health later approved the Northern Health and Social Care Trust’s recommendation to move all hospital births from Causeway Hospital to Antrim Area Hospital.
The Northern Health and Social Care Trust made the recommendation after they claimed the current service at Causeway Hospital was “unsustainable” with the change coming into place last July.
While in January, the Department of Health (DoH) officially approved a decision taken by the Southern Trust to permanently remove emergency general surgery from the Daisy Hill site in Newry after a shortage of general surgery consultants led to provisions being temporarily suspended.
Emergency general surgery refers to unscheduled care in this field and can mean specialist advice, admission for tests and, for some patients, an operation.
News Catch Up – Friday 18 October