An information session will take place in Ballymena next month as part of a consultation by the Department of Health over a proposed reconfiguration of hospitals in Northern Ireland.
The community event, specific to hospitals in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, will be held at Tullyglass Hotel, on February 5, from 7pm until 9pm.
The meeting is intended to provide information about proposals, answer questions and encourage participation in the consultation process.
The aim of the consultation is to address the need for hospital reconfiguration, consider how hospitals can work together for better outcomes and how patients can get the services they need in a “sustainable way”.
The Department for Health says:
“Our health system is on a journey and change is coming. Changes will be based on advances in health and social care and taking account of what the public and health professionals are telling us.
“This framework categorises hospitals in Northern Ireland into four specific main types operating as an integrated network. These are delivering primary, secondary and community services in support of the area and general hospitals.”
In the Northern Trust, Dalriada Hospital, Ballycastle; Mid-Ulster Hospital, Magherafelt; Moyle Hospital, Larne; Robinson Hospital, Ballymoney and Whiteabbey Hospital have been named by the Department as “local” hospitals.
The Department says it will be important health and social care trusts “continue to evolve their local hospitals to best meet current and future local population health needs”.
General hospitals will deliver defined secondary care services “geared to a specific, more isolated geographical locations” both unscheduled and planned treatment.
Causeway Hospital, in Coleraine, is listed as a proposed general hospital. Antrim Hospital is named as an area hospital. Regional centres will deliver specialist regional in-patient services for Northern Ireland.
The Department has indicated consideration is to be given to designating Causeway Hospital as an “elective care centre”. Elective care is scheduled or planned and can involve outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests, surgery and review.
The Department of Health has acknowledged the three hospitals listed in the proposed new general hospital category, Causeway, Daisy Hill and SWAH (South West Acute Hospital), “share many of the challenges of the area hospitals and in reality are competing with them for resources”.
It has been noted: “The issues associated with the reconfiguration of these hospitals are historically the most disputed by local communities. For many reasons these hospitals are the ones that are most vulnerable to unplanned change in service. Their geographical locations and the challenge of maintaining safety-critical medical rotas and wider clinical teams are the biggest issues.
“They cannot just be small area hospitals; the resources do not exist to perpetuate this. It is clear, however, that an achievable and sustainable solution that ensures the future of these hospitals is critical to developing a successful hospital network.
“These hospitals have a key role in ensuring our system can respond to the challenges of an ageing population, delivering a range of acute and rehabilitation services, with the advantage that they are closer to an otherwise more isolated community.”
It has been stressed the emergency departments in these hospitals “need to be sustainable on a 24/7basis, as the area hospitals could not cope with their significant workload”.
The Department of Health says the Northern Ireland hospital network “can only be sustained through collaboration”.
“This direction of travel means that all hospitals will not do all things. Importantly, this is not about cost-cutting or closing hospitals,” the Department has stressed.
“For our hospitals to be able to treat the sickest patients, we will need to enhance both community-based and primary care services.
“The reality is that we will continue to need every square inch of current acute hospital capacity. The roles of some hospitals will change to better deliver the health needs of the community and keep pace with modern medicine as well as contribute to regional delivery.
“Services may be relocated in some cases from their existing locations but all hospitals will continue to play a central and vital role in our health service and in their local communities.
“Such changes include creating new day and overnight centres at some hospital sites in addition to rapid diagnostic centres and work to develop an integrated care system.”
A rapid diagnostic centre for patients with potential cancer has been established at Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey.