A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) campaign group has revealed the Western Trust was aware of “inherent risks” in suspending emergency surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).
The details released on the health campaign group’s social media pages details correspondence between the Western Trust and the Department of Health’s Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) which took place in November, 2022.
The Trust announced the suspension of emergency general surgery in the same month, with the service ceasing in December. In the information released by SOAS labelled ‘Risks’, it states that the Trust had been liaising with the SPPG on the proposals to cease emergency surgery at the SWAH.
The five points included an increase in pressure on both Altnagelvin and Craigavon Area Hospitals as they will have to treat patients who would otherwise have received their treatment at the SWAH; the longer distance for patients to travel for emergency surgical care; increased pressure on the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to transport patients to Altnagelvin and Craigavon; the ability to recruit people for substantive consultant surgical posts; and the potential negative media coverage.
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The information also stated that “while it is expected that this form of urgent service change will generate negative media coverage, future plans to put in an elective overnight stay centre at the SWAH could counter the tone of the current and future media coverage”.
SOAS have been submitting FOI requests since October specifically relating to a number of issues connected to the hospital and the Western Trust.
A spokesperson from SOAS said the response supplied in the FOI raises their concerns.
The spokesperson said: “It is taken from an email thread within the Department of Health and we see comments, ‘While it is expected that this form of urgent service change will generate negative media coverage, future plans to put in an elective overnight stay centre at the SWAH could counter the tone of the current and future media coverage’.
“Is potential negative media coverage more significant than evaluating risk on patients? Where is the risk assessment done on our patients?”
They claimed: “A month earlier, this Trust failed to produce to [then] Minister [for Health, Robin] Swann any valid risk analysis. This comment [outlined above] stands out to us – written directly under the list of five risks.
“These risks have to be balanced against the greater risk of continuing to provide emergency surgery at the SWAH with insufficient consultant surgical staff to provide a safe and sustainable service.
“Is poor media coverage a trade-off against patients travelling untested distances to access urgent unplanned surgical care?” concluded the SOAS spokesperson.
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