{"id":827004,"date":"2026-11-07T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827004\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T11:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:00:13","slug":"mla-left-sitting-on-floor-with-child-at-ni-emergency-department-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827004\/","title":{"rendered":"MLA left sitting on floor with child at NI emergency department \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A DUP<\/a> MLA has said overcrowding at Causeway Hospital\u2019s<\/a> Emergency Department<\/a> left him sitting on the floor with his child.<\/p>\n

East Derry MLA Alan Robinson shared the remarks as leaders in the Northern Trust briefed Stormont\u2019s<\/a> health committee on their winter plans and pressure to cut services to save money.<\/p>\n

This had included plans to scrap the Phone First service, which can divert patients away from EDs to other care options.<\/p>\n

It had been due to end in the Northern Trust this month, but this week the Department of Health instructed all trusts to pause any changes.<\/p>\n

\"MLA<\/a>\"Man<\/a>\"TheThe Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT \/ ) <\/p>\n

\u201cI know in recent times when I was in ED with my child, certainly in the front section there was a bit of capacity but in the children\u2019s section…both my child and I were on the floor, such was the pressure,\u201d Mr Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven all of that, I am not convinced that adding numbers to Causeway ED, notwithstanding Antrim ED, that it was going to be of any benefit removing Phone First services.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it will be interesting to see going forward if the ultimate decision is that you backtrack on that because I think you should.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Northern Trust\u2019s budget of \u00a31.2bn, scrapping Phone First would save around \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n

The trust is currently attempting to reduce annual spending by 4%, including \u00a353m this year and a total of \u00a3150m by 2029.<\/p>\n

The Northern Trust\u2019s outgoing Chief Executive, Suzanne Pullins, responded: \u201cI\u2019m sorry for your experience in the ED when you were on the floor, that wouldn\u2019t be what we would want as you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWhilst it\u2019s a big budget, we spend every penny of it looking after the people who live in the Northern Trust area.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the bigger picture of reducing pressure on EDs was working towards the neighbourhood model of care, where frail older people in particular would receive care closer to home. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is a challenge. I know you\u2019re thinking it\u2019s a false economy, but there\u2019s many challenges that we have to deliver whilst we actually reconfigure services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Sinn F\u00e9in committee chair Philip McGuigan asked what services in the Causeway Hospital would look like in 10 years – given the withdrawal of maternity services to Antrim Area Hospital in 2023 and the trust recommending the same change for Emergency General Surgery.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to take this opportunity to once again put on record our commitment to Causeway Hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is and will remain an acute hospital with a 24\/7 consultant-led emergency department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not something that is up for debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe firmly believe that consolidating emergency surgery at one acute site at Antrim Area Hospital will deliver the best outcomes,\u201d as well as making Causeway an elective overnight care centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A DUP MLA has said overcrowding at Causeway Hospital\u2019s Emergency Department left him sitting on the floor with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,55107,13445,40608,59,69223,104,10856,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-827004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-causeway-hospital","tag-dup","tag-emergency-department","tag-gb","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-nhs","tag-stormont","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}