Editorial: A new A&E for Derry: People have waited long enough - literally
Far too often assertions over, and endorsements of, key plans and proposals are caveated with what is fast becoming a ubiquitous ‘subject to funding being identified’. Such is the case with Altnagelvin Hospital’s long overdue new A&E and it is simply not good enough.
Everyone, from the Minister to the Trust through to local politicians acknowledges that the Emergency Department is not fit for purpose, and there have been some valiant efforts and important developments initiated by the health authorities to try and mitigate some of the pressures in the interim.
And yet still we have so many patients, and indeed staff, having to put up with shocking conditions in a department that was never designed to cope with the numbers presenting there.
It should never have gotten to this stage. The lip service around the sense of urgency on replacing Derry’s A&E needs to be matched by action. It is beyond unacceptable that anyone is left sitting in pain for hours if not days in a crowded waiting area, and indeed many people have spoken about how scarring their experience there has been.
This is far from a new phenomenon, and it is imperative that whatever caveats are attached to getting a new A&E built and opened are removed, the process itself expedited and funding ring-fenced by Stormont or Westminster. We pay for the NHS through wage deductions and we all deserve better.
If Stormont cannot protect people at their most vulnerable – and a new A&E is only part of that – then you have to wonder, what is the point of it?