Daisy Hill to lose emergency surgery permanently under new proposal

Emergency general surgery will be permanently moved from Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry to Craigavon Area Hospital under a new proposal by the Southern Health Trust.

The service was moved from Daisy Hill in February 2022, in what was described by the trust as an interim measure.

The trust's board has approved the proposal and it will now go out for public consultation until 21 April.

It said there will be no change to Daisy Hill's emergency department.

The trust's chief executive, Maria O'Kane, said delivering all emergency general surgery from Craigavon was the only way it could "meet best practice standards, with the staff and resources we have available".

She added that the emergency department at Daisy Hill remained "crucial to meeting the needs of our local population".

Ms O'Kane said plans to transform Daisy Hill into an elective surgery hub, as announced by the former health minister Robin Swann in October 2022, were progressing.

She added that it had a "wide range of vibrant medical specialities and is a renowned teaching hospital".

"The recent investment from the Department of Health of over £9million to upgrade the electrical infrastructure at Daisy Hill is another very welcome commitment to the future of our hospital, offering great potential for further development of services," she continued.

Last February, Southern Trust's previous chief executive Shane Devlin said the removal of emergency general surgery at Daisy Hill was a short-term plan designed to keep patients safe.

SDLP assembly member for Newry and Armagh, Justin McNulty, said at the time that frontline staff and patients were "fearful" services could be downgraded at the hospital while Unite said it planned to "fight a stronger fight" to protect services at Daisy Hill.

The Southern Health Trust says a number of online information events on the proposal to permanently move surgery to Craigavon will be held in February and March.