Keeping Whiteabbey Hospital accident and emergency services open would endanger patients, the health minister said this week.

Senior doctors are leaving the Co Antrim hospital this month and the casualty unit cannot be safely sustained, Michael McGimpsey, Ulster Unionist Assembly member for South Belfast, added. He promised no staff will lose their jobs.

Last week it was announced A&E departments at Whiteabbey and Mid Ulster would close on May 24. Antrim Area Hospital will take many of the patients but on Sunday 18 people were being treated on trolleys at Antrim.

Mr McGimpsey said: “This is literally a situation of your life in their hands. As a minister when I am faced with a senior colleague, the senior A&E clinician and her staff saying to me that patients could come to harm given the service, the vulnerability of that service, I have no choice other than to act.”

Current arrangements were planned to last another six months before the minister's hand was forced by the departing clinicians, he said.

“We can’t sustain local hospitals with acute services in situations where it is virtually impossible to recruit,” he added.

It was announced last week that A&E at the two hospitals were being downgraded to minor injury units due to the safety concerns.

The Northern Health Trust said it expected that Antrim would be able to handle the increased number of patients. One of the reasons for the changes is to concentrate staff at Antrim and Causeway hospitals to improve the care given in both.

The changes were approved by the health minister last September following a 16-week consultation.

Nurses, doctors and staff at the closing A&E departments have protested at the speed with which the changes are being introduced.

North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly said. “This decision will only serve to place further pressure on the already over burdened Antrim Area Hospital at a time when there are increasing reports of long trolley waits at A&E facilities at all of our hospitals. This announcement is not in the best interest of this community and does not in my opinion meet the duty of care to the community that is expected of the Health authorities.”

Newtownabbey DUP Alderman Nigel Hamilton said: “The high handed manner and inadequate consultation has left many patients fearing for the vital services which on many occasions saved lives and provided an essential service to residents in Newtownabbey.

“All indications from the Antrim Hospital over the last few days suggest that it is woefully incapable of taking on the extra burden which is expected of it from the proposed date May 24.

“The Trust and its decision makers are looking at budgets and giving little to no regard to the serious implications of this.”

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, who visited Whiteabbey hospital after the announcement, said: “Many people whom I met at Whiteabbey Hospital were greatly distressed by the sudden decision to bring forward the closure of services.

“Patients could not praise highly enough the treatment they were receiving in Whiteabbey. I have already made clear my shock and anger at the sudden announcement of these changes.

“There are real concerns about the capacity of Antrim Area Hospital to cope. There are concerns about access to the Antrim Hospital from the Newtownabbey area. There are concerns about the speed of this change and its impact on health provision.”