'Extremely challenging' to restore emergency department at Sout West Acute Hospital
The pressures on the Northern Ireland Health Service are clear in the Western Trust where the Chief Executive said it will be "extremely challenging" to get general emergency surgery back up and running at the South West Acute Hospital.
The trust has just opened a public consultation into the future of the service.
But the hospital has also announced that it will begin the first of its overnight elective stay procedures in the coming weeks. The service should be fully operational in the coming months. It’ll be one of just three such centres in Northern Ireland.
Professor Mark Taylor will travel from Belfast to Enniskillen to carry out gallbladder procedures.
“Over 120,000 are waiting over a year for inpatient and day surgery,” he told UTV.
“This is another road towards transformation. This is a really good news story.”
However, the future of emergency car at the South West Acute Hospital remains in doubt after services were suspended last year. A 12-week public consultation will now be launched.
“I think this is a sham consultation,” Cllr Donal O Cofaigh said.
“I also think people should attend and participate because we cannot give the trust the excuse to just proceed regardless. People need to make it clear to the trust that we are not accepting this.”
The Western Trust says the hospitals location makes recruiting staff difficult.
“We’ve been very clear in our consultation period and consultation documents to highlight the areas we need to address before we can reinstate emergency general surgery,” Western Trust Chief Executive Neil Guckian said.
“That is about staffing and having the majority of our consultants in substantial roles, but also about meeting the regional standards for emergency general surgery which are a particular challenge to a remote hospital such as the South West Acute Hospital.
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.