The Western Trust has announced today, Thursday November 17, that emergency surgical services at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) will be removed from December 18.

The Trust claims this is a temporary move and now says it is due to a further resignation from the general surgery team.

There has, however, been much speculation in recent weeks with a similar date for the end of emergency surgery at SWAH widely known, today that was eventually confirmed by the Western Trust in a media briefing. 

In the first week of October, the matter was first raised by Fermanagh and Omagh District Councillor Paul Blake. At the time, the Western Trust said no decision had been "made yet". That decision has now been made.

In a press briefing at the hospital, Geraldine McKay, Director of Acute Services at the Western Trust said: "I spoke publicly last month on the fragility of Emergency general surgery at SWAH. At our Trust Board meeting today, we updated Trust Board members on the current position and in particular a further resignation received from another consultant in the general surgery team. This now means that we will not be in a position to provide an emergency (unplanned) general surgical rota from December 18."

She added: "Despite our previous and ongoing efforts to recruit, we have not been successful to date in securing the necessary consultant workforce. The Trust is therefore now unable to maintain the required workforce to sustain and deliver a safe emergency (unplanned) general surgical service to our population from SWAH.

"Put simply, we cannot provide an emergency general surgery service without a consultant surgical team in place to provide the required 24/7 cover."

The Trust confirmed that their board agreed for the temporary suspension of emergency general surgery as it is necessary to protect public health and safety.

She continued reading to the assembled press: "The current rota for emergency general surgery will be maintained up until December 4. Planned elective surgery at the hospital will continue.

"There will be no change to the Emergency Department (Type 1) at SWAH l which will continue to operate as usual on a 24/7 basis. There will be minimal to no impact on the other existing services at SWAH.

"We have developed and will implement alternative clinical patient pathways to mitigate risk and protect the safety of people needing to avail of emergency general surgery services after the current rota ends and are focused on minimising the impact of this temporary arrangement on the hospital's acute services. We will communicate the clinical patient pathways in the coming days.

"We are liaising with our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust on the new arrangements."

In a statement released by the Western Trust, Chief Executive Neil Guckian, who was not present at the meeting, he said: "We need to fully utilise all of our theatre capacity across South West Acute Hospital to undertake more elective procedures, and we are delighted to work with the Department to develop SWAH as an overnight elective surgery centre to benefit the growing numbers of patients on our waiting lists.

"I would like to pay tribute to our surgical teams for their continued commitment despite these mounting pressures and thank staff at South West Acute Hospital for their flexibility in supporting these temporary arrangements."

He added: "| want to reassure the local community that the Trust is fully committed to developing and enhancing South West Acute Hospital as an essential part of the Western Trust and regional hospital network. SWAH has a very busy Emergency Department, fantastic facilities and a wide range of very vibrant specialties."

Concluding, he said: "We ask for public support and understanding as we continue to work through the challenges to develop a solution that meets the future needs of our population. We will be carrying out a full public consultation on this temporary change including seeking views on how emergency general surgery might be restored, and will outline the details of consultation process in the coming weeks.

"Extensive work will be undertaken to inform patients of the change to general surgery services, including public advertising, posters and social media messaging."

It is a blow to the local community and to the efforts of those who have been campaigning for the service to be maintained.

The announcement comes hours before a planned protest outside Townhall, Enniskillen where Heath Trust and Department of Health officials are due to give a presentation to councillors regarding the situation.  Chief Executive Neil Guckian is due to attend.