Derry hospital A&E like ‘something you would see in a Third World country’ warns elected rep as Council seeks clarity over new facility

At January’s council meeting, SDLP councillor Martin Reilly put forward a successful motion, which read: “This Council recognises the extreme pressures currently being experienced by patients and staff at Altnagelvin Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department; acknowledges that the Western Trust have committed to a programme of upgrade works at the Hospital to improve patient, staff and visitor experience and patient flow; will write to the Health Minister seeking an update on the funding available in the Department’s Capital Investment Plan for the new Emergency Department and for the Department of Health to outline a vision for the services that are to be provided there.”

Speaking to his motion, Councillor Reilly said he had heard from several residents, who “all shared stories of long waits, crowded spaces, with a frustrating lack of amenities”.

“All of those stories are underpinned by recognition of the staff that are working in such conditions,” he said. “But right across the North West people have been visiting for over 40 years a building that the current Health Minister has indicated was initially designed for around 35,000 people per year but now sees around double that figure.

“I welcome the start last month of improvement works at the hospital for more toilets, more seats, better showers and more food options, but a longer-term solution is needed.

“Elected representatives in this chamber and beyond will want to know when the business case for the new ED will be approved, and whether the capital budget allocated to Minister Nesbitt is sufficient to deliver this project.”

Sinn Féin councillor Sandra Duffy said the entire health service in Northern Ireland has been “battered by British cuts and austerity”, leading to staff shortages and “endless waiting lists” for healthcare.

“Nowhere shows that pressure more than at Altnagelvin’s ED,” she added. “That’s why Sinn Féin has been putting a focus on this and Pádraig Delargy MLA has been consistently meeting with the Minister and the Trust.

“We now have a phrase that none of us ever wanted to hear in a modern health service: ‘corridor care’.

“The business case for the new, fit-for-purpose ED needs to be prioritised.”

UUP alderman Darren Guy said Mr Nesbitt has agreed that Altnagelvin has “outgrown its current use and is not fit-for-purpose”, while DUP alderman and Deputy Mayor, Niree McMorris, said her mother was recently admitted to the ED with a suspected stroke, and what she saw was “something you would see in a Third World country”.

Alderman McMorris said that her mother was “wheeled into the corridor” and made to sit in a chair for her diagnosis, as the room and bed were required for another patient.

“There were patients everywhere within the corridor with flimsy screens around them,” she said. “I sat in that ED and I was listening to other people’s medical history; their personal information.

“So even if the money came forward for the new ED tomorrow, it is going to take about four or five years in order for that to be built and implemented. I think we’re in crisis now and there’s a lot of things that the Trust need to be looking at.

“I can’t emphasise enough – it is like a Third World country. It’s not how we should be treating our elderly or our citizens. We need to be putting pressure on to get this money, the ED is really, really needed.”

People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said that while public health services continue to suffer, private health care profits are “absolutely going through the roof”.

“There’s more and more companies right now who are trying to, in their words, ‘crack’ the healthcare industry here in the North,” he said. “So Gerry Carroll has proposed that the £300 million spent over the last five years in private health care companies has to come to an end.

“There’s Executive parties here who all support an upgrade of Altnagelvin and want to see the ED invested in, but if Stormont continues to allow private companies to ravage our health service it’s going to get worse.

“So we can’t commit to more funding for the health service, then allow hundreds of millions to be sucked out by private healthcare companies.

“That’s why Altnagelvin is in the state that it’s in, because this has been going on for years and we need it to be halted.

“So I fully support the motion today. I hope that the Executive finds the money to resolve the issues at Altnagelvin, but there’s a bigger issue here about the privatisation of our health service.”

Recently. the Health Minister said the Western Trust is ‘putting significant investment’ into Altnagelvin A&E.

The Health Minister said: “I have been in the ED at Altnagelvin. It is the oldest of our type 1 EDs, and it looks and feels it, and that reflects really negatively on the patient experience.

"The Western Trust is putting significant investment into the current ED to try to make it a better experience for those who use it. I still want to see the new ED, but I am afraid that I cannot see it coming within the next five years.”

Mr. Nesbitt had been asked about pressures on the A&E by DUP MLA Alan Robinson.

“The Minister is quite right: the Altnagelvin emergency department is now 40 years old, and it was designed to cater for around 35,000 patients back then,” said the Limavady MLA.