Opening of the new Downe Hospital

The opening of the New Downe Hospital is the historic successful culmination of four decades of worry, frustration, protest and community action.

From the first public rally to support the cause of a new hospital which was organised in 1966 to the recent series of meetings on the need to keep the Cardiac Care Ward a stand alone ward in the new hospital, it has been a challenging campaign and thankfully rewarding, as we can now see the fruit of all of these labours in this new state of the art hospital.

We have secured a hospital for our future generations and we must now look to that future. We must strengthen what we have, and we must keep, as ever, a watchful eye on the development of Health Services in Northern Ireland, to ensure as we have over the past generation, the strategic role of the Downe Hospital in the delivery of effective health care in Down, Mourne and Northern Ireland as a whole.

I have been honoured to be part of this great achievement, I will continue to work to protect hospital services in Down, and I reaffirm a commitment I made back in 1992 during the rally at Dunleath Park where I spoke about my commitment to the fight against forces who have no regard to Patient welfare and are driven by cash and not care.

However, for now I feel the community should take great heart and pride in their new multi million pound hospital and continue to support the use of services at the hospital.

This is a great achievement for the people of Down and Mourne and will give encouragement to other communities who are facing the closure of local hospital service throughout Northern Ireland and indeed wider a field.