Altnagelvin impacted by cessation of emergency general surgery at SWAH

Fermanagh cleric Fr Brian D’Arcy has spoken out about the effect the cessation of Emergency General Surgery (EGS) at Enniskillen’s South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) is having on his community.

Fr D’Arcy was part of a delegation from the Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) campaign group invited to make a presentation to Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Health and Community Committee.

Joining Thursday afternoon’s meeting online, Fr D’Arcy described the cessation as having a “catastrophic effect on the ordinary people I have to deal with in my daily work as voluntary pastor in the health service”.

His SOAS colleagues, Helen Hamil (secretary), Jimmy Hamil (chairperson) and Karen Eccles, who were in the chamber, highlighted research showing the resulting pressure the EGS cessation was placing on Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital.

Fr D’Arcy said: “I was part of the group who worked very hard for the establishment of SWAH. We presented a perfect hospital with each room ensuite and five working theatres, one of them especially done for bariatric treatment which has never been used.

“We [also] presented them with a business plan to help make it work because it would be a facility for the rest of Northern Ireland and it would be a facility where cross border medical care could be given and it would have more than enough to do in all of that.

“The problem we have at the moment is nobody seems to be listening to the actual case.

“Nobody in the [Western Health and Social Care] Trust is anyway. And what we need is people to work together, we need politicians to work together because we are not a nuisance group.

“All we are looking for is a basic health care service which the Trust is bound to present to us but it is not doing it and it is taking it away from us and it is not fair and it is not just that a whole group of people, just because of where they live, is in danger of death on a daily basis because of the removal of acute surgery from a hospital which in its very name is the South West Acute Hospital.”

Helen Hamil said there were “common issues for Altnagelvin and SWAH”.

“Altnagelvin’s Emergency Department was already overwhelmed and that is not any comment to be made about it but physically it is not designed for the numbers it is dealing with,” she added.

“There is a serious insufficiency in ambulance capacity across Northern Ireland but particularly complicated due to the extra demand since the suspension of surgery in our hospital.

“There are currently 20 realigned beds in Altnagelvin for Southern Sector surgical patients, so, without a doubt, this is the key issue.

“We are related. Our problem is the same problem and we do want to impress on all of you that the transfer of increasing numbers of patients up the road to Altnagelvin is not in anyone’s best interests.

Family voices concerns over staffing levels at Altnagelvin

Fears: Altnagelvin being 'negatively' impacted by pressure of suspension of emergency general surgery at Enniskillen's South West Acute Hospital

More than 30 'adverse incidents' involving transfer of patients at Altnagelvin

NI Ambulance Service reported 236 ‘adverse incidents’ to WHSCT for investigation as inter-trust incidents

“This is not an Altnagelvin versus SWAH situation. We are all losing here.”

Following the presentation, the Health and Community Committee members unanimously backed a motion to endorse SOAS’s

‘Roadmap’ document which contains 20 key recommendations for the future of SWAH.

Proposed by Cllr Brian Tierney and seconded by Alderman Niree McMorris, the full text of the motion read: “Council endorses the Roadmap for the future of SWAH as outlined during the deputation.

“Council agrees to write to all Executive ministers asking them to use their influence to call this decision in to allow the Executive to discuss and understand the impact on people and communities across the west.”