Nicola Grant Workers Party Representative for Newry and Armagh has condemned the hypocrisy of those parties who have agreed the Bengoa report and other reports to centralise and reconfigure hospitals

Ms Grant said it is absolute hypocrisy for those parties who have brought us Transferring your care and the Bengoa report heath ministers Poots, and health minster O’Neill claiming to support local hospitals when they are responsible for creating the chaos and crisis faced by rural communities.

Transferring your care had to be scrapped but only after they had privatised the home care services and residential care homes. These plans to balance the books were responsible for creating the problem of discharge from hospitals beds were blocked because there were no home care packages available.

Ms Grant added the Bengoa report accepted by all the parties is even worse than TYC this is where the changes to local hospitals flow from and the centralised system of healthcare.It is ironic seeing those politicians who have accepted the words of consultants and those with vested interests, and who should have seen the out workings of these plans now turning up to oppose the closure of Daisy Hill Maternity unit. When the could simply said no to such wide spread disruption of vital local services

This has been an absolute disaster which created real unfixable problems that has broken the health service no discharges because there are no care packages so beds are being blocked. Overflowing Emergency Departments corridor care, carpark care in ambulances which could all have been avoided. And tick box exercises to shorten ambulance handover times. This could have been stopped and it should have stopped had there been proper scrutiny and more in depth interrogation of the plans before them. The workers Party is calling for a root and branch review of those decisions. we demand less rancour and more scrutiny at the health committee. These issues are impacting the daily lives of the people in the catchment area Daisy Hill Hospital serves, they deserve much better than a rush to protests in the run up to elections.