Campaign against closing Causeway Hospital services seeking legal advice amid 'massive anger'

A strongly attended public meeting took place to discuss the closing of the Causeway Maternity Unit and agreed to seek legal advice about taking action against the Civil Service.

In Kilrea last Tuesday, 11 April, people gathered to voice their opposition to The Northern Health and Social Care Trust's announcement it would be ending birth services at their hospital.

The public meeting agreed to seek legal advice on the decision being made in the absence of an Executive in Stormont to close the 'vital service'.

Chairperson of the campaign Gemma Brolly described the ‘massive anger in the community' following the announcement.

“The people of this community have made their concerns and feelings very clear regarding the proposed closure of Causeway Maternity. There is massive anger in the community,” she said.

“People are resolute in their desire to maintain this vital service. Yet management authorities appear to be intent on steamrolling over these concerns, with what can only be termed as a ‘cart before the horse' approach.

“We have decided to seek legal advice to ascertain whether the management of the hospital or the civil service have the legal authority to close this vital service in the absence of a Minister for Health. In the event their authority to make this decision is legally in question we will seek to pursue legal action against the Civil Service to save the service."

Mrs Gemma Brolly says hospital staff are extremely concerned about the closure as they face a continued lack of transparency around the process.

“Having spoken to staff based in both Causeway Hospital and Antrim Area Hospital, we are aware of the extreme anxiety of staff on-the-ground and find the lack of consultation and engagement with this staff by management extremely shocking.

“Antrim Area Hospital were experiencing a shortage of approximately 8 midwives as it was, recently they employed 12 new starts which one would imagine is in preparation for the transfer of births from Causeway over to Antrim which has now been reported to take place in July.

“This therefore leaves approximately 4 midwives to manage what could be approximately 900 extra births per year, not to mention where these births will take place.”

Concerns about what this may indicate about the future of the entire hospital were also raised at the meeting.

“Of course, there is a bigger picture here. All hospital services are interlinked. We are concerned also for the future of the Intensive Care Unit at Causeway Hospital. If this goes it would mean the end of the Accident and Emergency at the hospital,” Mrs Brolly said.

“One thing is for sure, each one of us will need an A&E at some times in our lives. If this is closed it would put massive pressure on the surrounding hospitals that are already under severe pressure. This is the most important health infrastructure in our region and our campaign will fight tooth and nail for its protection".

Also in attendance was the chair of the National Hospitals Campaign Peadar Tóibín who organised the 18 Hospital Protests throughout the country last January.

Deputy Tóibín said the hospital situation across the North was 'intolerable'.

“One in seven people are on hospital waiting lists here. That's 350,000 people. This is intolerable. All of the five Executive parties signed up to the Bengoa Report which sets out the blueprint for centralisation of hospital services,” he said.

“Michelle O'Neill was the Minister for Health when this report was launched. She said at the time that it would only be implemented with increased Primary Care and Step Down resources and that hospitals would see increased resources to ensure that they could cope.

“This is not what happened. We are seeing centralisation without the necessary resources. This will put lives in danger."

The Save Causeway Hospital group is planning further public meetings and protests in the coming months. It has also launched a petition that has collected over 1,000 signatures in hard copy and online in just one week. It can be found at: https://chng.it/ywRMP2Kj2p