RECRUITING and retaining staff at South West Acute Hospital “continues to be a challenge” Health Minister Michelle O’Neill has admitted. 
“I want to be clear that sufficient medical staff are in place to ensure the delivery of safe patient services in South West Acute Hospital and recent figures show that performance levels are strong,” she told DUP MLA Maurice Morrow. 
Minister O’Neill added: “Current international recruitment exercises are showing early signs of promise, but they can only be a short term measure and not a sustainable way forward. We cannot continue as we are. Our smaller hospitals have considerable recruitment challenges and a heavy reliance on locums across a number of medical grades and this is the case in the Western Trust, including at South West Acute Hospital where we will shortly see some six additional new Foundation Year training posts from August 2016 and four new consultants starting later this year.”