EXCELLENCE THAT MUST BE BACKED
Excellence that must be backed
WE hear a lot these days about medical excellence and I'm sure It means a great deal. We also hear that we In Northern Ireland only need six hospitals for the whole Province to cope with our population.
What is medical excellence? Well I believe that Omagh answered that question. It was available at the Tyrone County Hospital. It was, in the wording of the Patient's Charter, accessible, it was there, available, within reach.
What a disaster, 250 casualties for their small hospital; on which the pundits; medical/civil servants and visiting politicians had already passed the death sentence. Tyrone County proved them wrong.
What a task! Patients arriving by the bus load; I listened to the hospital staff Press conference with acute interest. They had recently had a major disaster exercise which perhaps helped them to produce the medical excellence that Tyrone County displayed that day.
Patients were quickly stabilised and dispersed all over the Province. The important point is that they were assessed and stabilised before being sent on long tortuous journeys. How many more would have died without these decisions being taken and their medial ability to travel long distances not been professionally decided?
I hope someone will write the story of that black day in Co Tyrone. The fact that only one of the injured has since died is a great credit to the medical excellence at Tyrone County Hospital.
The pundits have had the answer to medical excellence and nothing is excellent if it is not where it is most needed at the time it is most required.
I must confess that I have a personal interest in accessibility. The civil servants and visiting politicians want to close the Downe, a hospital with an excellent reputation and the only hospital in Northern Ireland to meet at the criteria laid down.
In addition, it and the Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn act as one acute hospital on a split site; a first and only experiment of the kind but very successful indeed.
Now the civil servants want to close the Downe as they have wanted to do for years.
We will continue to fight the closure of the Downe. The Minister has refused a discussion with the Newcastle area. A civil servant said on television recently that the decision had been taken and the Assembly could not change it.
As months go by the Assembly will tell the civil servants what they must do and what they can change, Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon must press on full speed.
W J Martin, Slevenamaddy Avenue, Newcastle
WE hear a lot these days about medical excellence and I'm sure It means a great deal. We also hear that we In Northern Ireland only need six hospitals for the whole Province to cope with our population.
What is medical excellence? Well I believe that Omagh answered that question. It was available at the Tyrone County Hospital. It was, in the wording of the Patient's Charter, accessible, it was there, available, within reach.
What a disaster, 250 casualties for their small hospital; on which the pundits; medical/civil servants and visiting politicians had already passed the death sentence. Tyrone County proved them wrong.
What a task! Patients arriving by the bus load; I listened to the hospital staff Press conference with acute interest. They had recently had a major disaster exercise which perhaps helped them to produce the medical excellence that Tyrone County displayed that day.
Patients were quickly stabilised and dispersed all over the Province. The important point is that they were assessed and stabilised before being sent on long tortuous journeys. How many more would have died without these decisions being taken and their medial ability to travel long distances not been professionally decided?
I hope someone will write the story of that black day in Co Tyrone. The fact that only one of the injured has since died is a great credit to the medical excellence at Tyrone County Hospital.
The pundits have had the answer to medical excellence and nothing is excellent if it is not where it is most needed at the time it is most required.
I must confess that I have a personal interest in accessibility. The civil servants and visiting politicians want to close the Downe, a hospital with an excellent reputation and the only hospital in Northern Ireland to meet at the criteria laid down.
In addition, it and the Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn act as one acute hospital on a split site; a first and only experiment of the kind but very successful indeed.
Now the civil servants want to close the Downe as they have wanted to do for years.
We will continue to fight the closure of the Downe. The Minister has refused a discussion with the Newcastle area. A civil servant said on television recently that the decision had been taken and the Assembly could not change it.
As months go by the Assembly will tell the civil servants what they must do and what they can change, Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon must press on full speed.
W J Martin, Slevenamaddy Avenue, Newcastle
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/311
Published Date: 18-Sep-98
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