Derry & Strabane Council urged to back motion seeking update on new Altnagelvin Hospital A&E
Derry City & Strabane District Council will this week be asked to back a motion on a new A&E department at Altnagelvin Hospital which calls on the Health Minister to explain ‘exactly where this project stands’.
SDLP Waterside councillor Martin Reilly has said a new emergency department (ED) at Altnagelvin Hospital is vital to relieving pressure on the health service in Derry.
He was speaking ahead of bringing a motion to full council on the issue on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the latest report shows that at noon on Friday last, January 23, there were 117 patients at Altnagelvin’s ED, and that 62 of those people had been waiting for more than 12 hours. A total of 55 people were waiting for admission to a hospital bed.
Councillor Reilly said: “It is widely accepted that the only way to properly meet the health needs of people in our city is through a new emergency department at Altnagelvin Hospital. The current ED is more than 40 years old and simply cannot cope with demand, creating knock-on pressures right across the health service in Derry and across the Western Trust.
“People experiencing a medical crisis should not be left waiting hours for care. Sick patients sitting on hard chairs in severe pain and elderly people left on trolleys in corridors is no longer the exception, it is the daily reality. Staff are doing everything they can, but the conditions they are working in make it impossible to provide the standard of care people deserve.”
Colr. Reilly said that while the Health Minister has committed to delivering a new ED at Altnagelvin, “as with so many projects, progress is now being held up by a lack of funding and people are understandably worried that this will drift or never materialise”.
“I am asking councillors from all parties to back my motion and support writing to the Health Minister to establish exactly where this project stands. This is an issue that affects every person across the North Wwest and we need to speak with one voice. The SDLP will continue pushing this in council and as the Opposition at Stormont until this new emergency department is delivered.”