WHSCT decision follows success of lockdown measures in lowering
Covid-19 initial infection peak which has freed up hospital capacity
allowing services to reopen
Health Minister must now immediately authorise Trust plans to reopen
SWAH facilities in order to remove huge pressures on rural dwellers
forced to travel to Altnagelvin to access vital children's health
services
Cross-community Labour councillor for Enniskillen DEA, Donal O'Cofaigh,
revealed detail of communication from Western Health and Social Care
Trust CEO Anne Kilgallen which confirmed the Trust's intention to reopen
children's services at SWAH commencing May
25th.
"After councillors were provided a copy of the briefing of WHSCT CEO
Dr Anne Kilgallen to the Trust board on May 8th, at which she indicated
her intention to move to swiftly reopen both the Paediatric ward and
Neonatal unit but pointed to the need for regional
authorisation, I wrote to Dr Kilgallen yesterday afternoon [May 12th]
to confirm the status of this report. I also requested guidance on
whether the authorisation required was to come from Ministerial or
Health Board (HSCT) level.
"In the evening I received a response from Dr
Kilgallen in which she confirmed that plans were at an advanced state
to reopen these facilities on May 25th and that she was simply
awaiting authorisation at regional level to proceed; authorisation she
expected to come later by today.
"I
would like to thank Dr Kilgallen for her responsiveness to my
communications on these matters; and indeed the way in which she
intervened decisively when the plan to close was
made public. She communicated clearly at that stage both the rationale
for the decision to close these facilities and her commitment to reopen
them as quickly as possible - and this provided much needed assurance to
both staff and the local community.
"Unfortunately
I am aware that during this period of closure a number of families have
had to travel long-distances to Altnagelvin to visit children; due to
the need for social-isolating
visitor numbers were restricted in some cases to one family leaving
others outside for the duration. The human impact of closing facilities
in SWAH has been made all too clear over these recent weeks. There is a
pressing geographical necessity for the retention
of as many front-line services as possible in Enniskillen given our
county's geographical peripherality. In particular under no
circumstances should austerity funding cuts drive the closure of NHS
services.
"We
now need to see movement at Executive level to reopen these facilities -
there is no possible reason to justify their continued closure beyond
May 25th. I am calling on Minister
Swann to ensure that there is no further delay or impact on local
people.
"In
my communication to Dr Kilgallen I extended my thanks and those of the
entire community for the continued and heroic efforts of our health and
social care workers who are standing
at the forefront of the fight to save lives in this pandemic. Never
before has the vital role performed by our NHS workers been more
apparent than it is today. We, the people, must remember their efforts
and resolve that in the future our NHS workers and our
services will be properly funded, adequately resourced and front-line
services defended from austerity cuts and privatisation", Cllr O'Cofaigh said.
No comments:
Post a Comment