30/03/2017 BBC Newsline

Emergency Services at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry may

have to be suspended due to a shortage of permanent

The BBC understands that the department

Staff working in Daisy Hill's emergency department were only told

A staff shortage could lead to services being

Last year more than 53,000 people attended the emergency department.

In a statement, the Trust said, the service currently remains

vulnerable to the short notice withdrawal of senior medical staff.

As of today, the department is working well, it is fully staffed

But over the last few years we've been experiencing

recruitment challenges, and as we enter the summer period it

becomes more difficult to maintain and recruit staff to the level

we need to maintain the department as a safe place to attend.

What may happen is similar to what happened at Belfast's City

It could also not staff its emergency department,

Over the years, Daisy Hill has been gradually undermined,

which may be a reason why many young doctors are not being posted

there, because maybe some feel they could have more experience

This is where patients will come if emergency services are suspended.

Back in Newry, the mention of temporary closure has people

I was here last week with my daughter, and if it wasn't for them,

While the Trust is at pains to point out it is a last resort,

it is cold comfort to those who may have to travel to Craigavon

Meanwhile it's also emerged that a quarter of all radiologists' posts

It's understood that's impacting on how quickly cancer patients

New cancer waiting time figures show all targets have again been missed.

Our health correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly has the story.

Last December, Paul Hutchinson had surgery for brain cancer.

But it took a further three weeks before he was called back

for a scan, to reveal just how successful the surgery had been

After surgery, you should know whether they've got it all.

And the wait is really, really frustrating.

It is a standard procedure, it is something that should be done,

a couple of days' recovery and you are checked out.

While cancer patients rely heavily on surgeons to remove the cancer,

they depend on radiologists to detect it.

At the moment though those specialists are in short supply

In fact the BBC has learned that approximately 40

posts remain unfilled across the five health trusts.

According to the Health and Social Care board,

this is despite multiple attempts to recruit doctors.

Radiology is a very important area for the diagnosis

And if there are delays in the radiologists' workload,

then we are causing a backlog of patients to be treated.

The latest cancer waiting times show some improvement,

but the targets continue to be missed.

And all of this is compounded by Northern Ireland,

unlike the rest of the UK, failing to introduce

Now here's Mark Carruthers with details of what's coming up

As the process of leaving the EU gets under way

we'll hear from the former First Minister of Scotland, Alex

Salmond, who says we should be deeply worried about

and Sinn Fein's John O Dowd make of that.

window of opportunity to resolve the Stormont crisis, what next

Join me straight after this bulletin here on BBC One.

A Londonderry aerospace firm is to close with the loss of 40 jobs.

to find a buyer for Schivo NI, which supplies parts for aircraft

The business, formerly known as Maydown Precision Engineering,

The funeral has taken place of the Donegal woman

A priest told mourners that Danielle McLaughlin

was a remarkable, loyal and thoughtful girl

Here's our North-West reporter, Keiron Tourish.

Hundreds of mourners joined the cortege of

Danielle McLaughlin as it made its way from her family home.

Many had travelled from across the world, the UK,

Australia and New Zealand, to pay their respects.

Children from a local school where her young sisters attend

She was found dead in a field near a tourist resort in Goa

The parish priest said Danielle McLaughlin,

the eldest of five daughters, made a huge impression on everyone.

Today has been about looking back through that mist of sadness

and desperation that people have felt, that

Reaching back beyond that, to the reality of Danielle's life

The gifts that she enjoyed, the blessings that she brought,

Mourners were told the vast array of tender messages

for her mother and family showed the esteem in which she was held.

After Requiem Mass, Danielle McLaughlin was buried

Ulster rugby star Ruan Pienaar says he wants to return to the club

who was honoured by Ulster at the Kingspan stadium tonight -

is leaving to join a new club in France this summer but wants

Know that I have got to sort things out for the kids and the family with

the move, only a few games left, it is sad. I would have liked to finish

my career with Ulster. Hopefully my next move, I might come back here, I

would love to come back in some way possible.

Now, with the weather forecast, here's Angie Phillips.

Still quite mild at the moment. Some parts of the north and West saw 16

degrees. That sparked off showers in places. They will fade away for a

time but it is still unsettled tonight with another batch of rain

moving in later tonight across parts of the South and East. With the

cloud cover mild temperatures generally. Tomorrow something

brighter. Not a great start however. Grey, lots of cloud. Pretty wet in

places particularly for Central and Eastern areas. The persistence of

that rain is likely to read to surface water and spray that things

will lighten up, late morning into early afternoon. In the meantime

that rain moves off to affect Scotland. For England and Wales it

is a show at the picture. Cloudy to begin with. That's quite beating up

to give spills of sunshine. Towards the West and other batch of cloud

and rain moving in across the Republic of Ireland. After a drier

and brighter start it will be a cloudier and wetter end to the day.

This time the West sees the bulk of that rain moving in. A wet end to

the day in the West after a wet start to the day in the East. Still

miles. Surely conditions carry on through tomorrow night until the

start of Saturday at least. Becomes cooler on Saturday night. Not

looking too bad on Sunday. Our next BBC Newsline

is at 6.25 in the morning You can also keep updated

with News Online.