Daisy Hill Hospital emergency surgery moves to Craigavon Area Hospital

Plans to temporarily withdraw emergency general surgery from Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry have now come into effect.

As of Monday, all emergency surgical patients requiring inpatient assessment will be admitted to Craigavon Area Hospital.

The move comes amid recruitment challenges at Daisy Hill.

However, there will be no change to the 24-hour emergency department at Daisy Hill, which will continue to operate as usual. 

The Southern Trust posted a video on social media from its clinical teams on Sunday.

Consultant general surgeon Mr Kevin McElvanna said: "From tomorrow, all emergency general surgical patients who need inpatient assessment in the southern area, will be admitted to Craigavon Area Hospital.

“This is a contingency plan developed by our surgical team, along with our clinical colleagues, in both the Daisy Hill and Craigavon Hospital sites to address a very immediate and significant patient safety risk due to difficulties recruiting and retaining staff."

Despite repeated recruitment advertisements, from the end of February, Daisy Hill will have only one permanent consultant general surgeon out of six funded posts.

Craigavon will have eight out of nine.

In a statement the trust said the consolidation of emergency surgery to one site will allow the team to maintain the safety of the service.

A formal project structure is now being established to develop longer term proposals for public consultation on elective and general surgery across the Southern Trust.

What is the picture across Northern Ireland's other health trusts?

UTV asked the Western, Belfast, Northern and South Eastern trusts how many general surgery posts are funded, how many funded posts are filled and how many are covered by locums.

• The Western Trust says it is funded for 14.5 ‘whole time equivalent’ (WTE) consultant general surgeon posts. It says, as of February, it has 11 WTE consultant general surgeon posts on “permanent substantive contracts” and two locums in post.

• The Belfast Trust says it is funded for 23 surgeons within general surgery and currently has one vacancy and no locums.

• The Northern Trust says it is funded for 14 general surgery posts and all 14 are currently filled, 13 on a permanent bases and one short-term locum. The trust says these surgeons “cover colorectal and GI as well as general surgery, providing sessions across all our hospital sites”. It says this “does not include breast surgeons”.

• The South Eastern Trust says it has 16 consultant general surgeons funded and in post, with no vacancies and no locums. It says: “These surgeons cover the sub specialisms of colorectal, upper GI and breast as well as general surgery, providing sessions across all our hospital sites.”