DERRY JOURNAL Editorial : United we can restore hope

It was no mean feat, and it is testament to what can be done when people in power put their differences aside and work collaboratively for the benefit and betterment of our collective lot here.

In normal times, this announcement would have been carefully prepared and generated much fanfare. But it speaks to how much has changed in nine long weeks that when it came, after almost a decade of hard work and lobbying, it was tagged on to the end of a daily COVID briefing and was largely overlooked and even missed by some who only had ears for the latest figures and the easing of the lockdown.

And it was fitting that the Medical School was delivered in the context of the fight against coronavirus. We have all heard about and read about the heroic efforts of frontline health care staff, from nurses, doctors, care home workers and pharmacists to ambulance crews, home helps, chemist staff, cleaners and cooks in our hospitals putting themselves at risk day in and day out. But it is also well known that there just aren’t enough of them. Recruitment and retention has been a huge problem. We don’t have enough GPs and other medical professionals, and had the COVID situation here been much worse, we might have been overwhelmed. This is why the Medical School is so crucial.

And this is why it was so crucial that those appointed by the University to prepare the groundwork for it had a strong wind at their back with the Council, Western Trust, medical staff, the Chamber of Commerce, and all our politicians speaking as one. In the end, their work led to Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill taking personal charge, and they too deserve credit for clearing whatever hurdles remained to bring a glimmer of hope that perhaps the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ will be just that for a region scarred and sceptical after decades of hopes raised and dashed.