Ulster Unionist Assembly member for Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Tom Elliott MLA, has said that since the publication by the Southern Trust of a strategy entitled “Changing for a Better Future” in March 2013 he has sought a meeting with Trust Chief Executive Mairead McAlinden to discuss how this strategy would impact on patients in South Tyrone.
Tom said;
“This meeting is due to take place next week. I have also posed questions on the future of Loane House and McKeag Day Centre in Aughnacloy, such is my concern about potential changes to rehabilitation for older people in the Dungannon area.
“I continue to liaise closely with South Tyrone Community Forum representatives and our sole objective is that no beds should be removed from Loane House and I am acutely aware of the fears for families who have relatives who are receiving excellent medical care at this local centre, rather than be shipped out to a location many miles from their homes.
“I am aware there is an emergency meeting with the South Tyrone Action Group in early September which will allow elected representatives to voice their opposition to the isolation of elderly relatives being sent miles away from their homes. The continued leeching of medical services from the Dungannon area is very worrying to the wider public of this area. We must fight to retain and improve medical provision for an ageing and increasing population in the Dungannon district.”