SoS Altnagelvin taking its petition to the streets in November
SoS Altnagelvin - the patient-led campaign group demanding a new A&E at Altnagelvin Hospital - is taking its petition to the streets over the next number of weeks, giving people the opportunity to sign in person and online.
“This Saturday, November 14 and subsequently Saturday, November, volunteers from SoS Altnagelvin will be stationed between Foyleside and Richmond Centre for our ‘action days’, asking people to sign our petition to demand a new A&E that is fit for purpose in our hospital,” said SoS Altnagelvin chairperson, Emmet Doyle.
“The current Accident and Emergency Department was built to cater for 40,000 patients a year - it is dealing with double that,” he added.
“We have all heard the horror stories of pensioners and very sick people sitting on hard seats in the Department for days despite the heroic efforts of our healthcare heroes. We cannot allow that situation to continue. This petition will be sent to the Department of Health demanding that funding be put in place to redevelop A&E in line with plans the Western Trust have already submitted to them.
“At our first public meeting, we made the scale of the problem clear - we will see more deaths in this city if we do not fight to secure the service we need. Staff are being run into the ground, people are bringing pillows and blankets with them if they need to visit A&E because waiting for days for care is now becoming the norm - we can't let that happen.
“We have over 1,000 signatures on the petition today, and we will no doubt collect hundreds more over our days of action.
“We ask anyone who sees us on the 14th and 28th to sign the petition, share your stories with us and help us to put pressure where it is needed. We will be on the ground from 11am.”
The SoS petition can be signed online at: https://c.org/JWkjv289Kf