- Ambulance response times, under 50% of emergency calls answered below the Ministers Target of 8 minutes
- Tracker systems in ambulances leaving the Mid Ulster area devoid of ambulance cover for some time as Mid Ulster ambulances cannot get out of Antrim
- Waiting times at Antrim hospital including the short stay ward and clinical decision ward
- Chief consultant Oliva Dornan of the Northern Trust on her ability to manage the A&E and the fact that 2 consultants in the under staffed A&E are doing more administration work than medical work, this puts a strain on the remaining consultants to serve the A&E.
- The extension of the A&E at Antrim, it was recognised that this extension will still not be able to cope with the numbers that will have to go through it
- The extra 24 ward beds, it was recognised that these beds are already full up before they are built
- The intention of the Northern Trust to rent out the Mid Ulster Hospital to private charities, some being non-health related
- the 2006 risk assessment that stated the most dangerous decision health chiefs could of made was shut the Mid Ulster hospital in terms of maternity and A&E
- The ability for residents to now Trust the decision makers within the Northern Trust due to the mistakes made in the past
- The vast increase in patients waiting for out-patients waiting over 9 weeks for first appointment between 2010/11 (13,000%), in-patients and day case treatment waiting over 13 weeks for first appointment since 2010/11 (2,000%) and the danger of this leading to more people turning up at the A&E
While the Minister had no intention of restoring services at the Mid Ulster Hospital Save The Mid had before hand sent recommendations to the Health Minister, the same recommendations were also submitted to John Compton in the health review in 2011 that included:
- Opening ward two fro patients from Thompson house and overflow from Antrim Hospital
- Extension of opening times at the Minor Injury Unit in Mid Ulster
The Minister urged that MLA's and Save The Mid bring these issues to the Northern Trust, which beggar belief as to who is actually in control of our health system, it was said to the Minster with no reply that if it is acceptable to let patients wait on trolleys then why do we not shut down all the hospitals expect the Belfast ones and make people wait there. If it is not acceptable it is not acceptable and this must be corrected, it was also put to the Health Minster that he knew Chief consultant Oliva Dorna hid patients and ambulances were diverted from the Antrim Hospital when he visited it last year, in response the Health Minister said that there is a independent reviewer at the Antrim Hospital to monitor what is happening.
Save The Mid meet with Sean Donaghy CEO of the Northern Trust on the 1st February.