Welcome for senior doctor’s timely warning on Causeway

THE leader of the TUV and North Antrim MLA, Jim Allister, has said that the recent warning by senior doctor, Dr. Owen Finnegan, that the removal of acute services from the Causeway Hospital would pose ‘significant health risk’ to the local population, is a timely wake up call to Health Minister Edwin Poots.

In a statement, Mr. Allister said: “Dr Finnegan is absolutely right. The Minister can’t strip out acute services from Coleraine without creating chaos across the Trust area, simply because neither Antrim - already in turmoil - or Altnagevlin could cope.

“I endorse entirely his view that the only safe way of delivering healthcare is to continue to have acute services in Coleraine.

.“I also welcome and support the Unison petition, being presented to Stormont, as another vital contribution to the rising campaign to save the Causeway as an essential acute hospital.

“The people of Ballymoney and Coleraine are not second class citizens and must not be left with a second rate service by the DUP Health minister. What we have in Coleraine we need and must hold.”