Mid Ulster patients travelling 'more than 40 miles to see out-of-hours GP but no pharmacy on site'

Councillor Christine McFlynn (Magherafelt DEA) urged the Northern HSC Trust to consider bringing the service back to Magherafelt after outlining how some people had to make a lengthy journey to Antrim to see an GP and then on to Larne to get medication.

Speaking at the January meeting of Mid Ulster District Council, following a presentation by the Trust, the SDLP representative stressed that this situation was really inconvenient.

She commented: “The Trust decided during Covid to move Dalriada. It was in Magherafelt and they decided to move it to Ballymena, and now it’s down in Antrim.

“If you’re unlucky enough to have to go to Dalriada at night, if you have a relative sick or whatever and you need to go down there to meet somebody down there, yes you’ll be seen, but there’s no on-site pharmacist.

“So if you need a prescription you have to go to Larne to pick up your prescription, which happened to me and a member of my family who were seriously ill and needed a protective medication, and they couldn’t get it anywhere else.

“So I think it would be good if the Trust would make plans. If they can bring it back to Mid Ulster Hospital that’d be good, because if you take sick, if you have a young child and you go down Dalriada at night, you could be travelling maybe 30 to 40 miles, maybe more, and then if you have to go on to Larne to pick up medication, it’s just not reasonable for people to have to do that.”