South West Acute Hospital: Surgeon hits out at 'parish pump politics'

Surgeons have "voted with their feet" to temporarily withdraw emergency general surgery from an Enniskillen hospital, a surgeon has said.

The Western Trust said it made the call for public safety reasons as it had problems recruiting surgical staff to South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).

Barry McAree accused some politicians of engaging in "parish pump politics".

Sinn Féin's Colm Gildernew said this was a "disgraceful" way to refer to "genuine concerns" about the decision.

The former chairman of Stormont's health committee said it was an "extremely disappointing failure by the trust to recruit surgeons" where a need had been identified.

"This is not and nor should it be represented as any kind of transformation," Mr Gildernew told BBC's Good Morning programme.

He said it was an "unplanned collapse".

Mr Gildernew added that assurances had been given that this was a temporary situation.

Word emergency 'overplayed'

However consultant colorectal and general surgeon, Barry McAree, said he hoped the decision would not be temporary.

"I believe that this should have happened a long time ago, as do many others," he said.

He added that had the Bengoa review been "properly implemented", it would have happened in a more controlled fashion.

Bengoa was a major report into the health service in Northern Ireland in 2016.

• Emergency general surgery withdrawn from SWAH

• Community concern over hospital announcement

"The fact is that surgeons and patients are better looked after in bigger units with longer travel times even taken into the mix," Mr McAree said.

"The word emergency has been overplayed by many with regards to emergency general surgery," he said.

"Unfortunately, realistically, us general surgeons just aren't that important and the majority of what we deal with is classified as urgent.

"Even hours travelled to bigger units gives better results than continuing with small poorly resourced units."

He said surgeons wanted to work in bigger, better staffed and better equipped units.

Local residents expressed concern about patients' safety

Dr Brendan Lavery, director of the Western Trust, said the decision was not going to lead to "adverse outcomes", and denied that this was a permanent measure.

He said he accepted that many people would be disappointed.

"This has happened because we were unable to recruit general surgeons.

"We have tried everything we can. In an ideal world, I would prefer to leave things as they are."

He said the trust was currently trying to recruit surgeons.

Despite saying the move was temporary, the trust did not say when it expected emergency general surgery would resume.

• Live: Reaction to decision to withdraw emergency general surgery from SWAH

The emergency department and other services will continue to operate as normal.

Other - mostly lower grade - surgeons will remain on site at the County Fermanagh hospital.

People will have to travel to other hospitals for emergency general surgery

They will stabilise patients before they are transferred by ambulance to the likes of Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Londonderry, Craigavon Area Hospital in County Armagh or Sligo University Hospital across the border in the Republic of Ireland.

Local groups have said they are concerned that the road infrastructure does not support a quick transfer of patients from Enniskillen to Altnagelvin, Craigavon or hospitals in Belfast.

In a further move, it has been confirmed the hospital is to become Northern Ireland's third elective surgical hub.

In October, emergency general surgery was "temporarily" moved from Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry to Craigavon Area Hospital.

Campaigners gathered outside Enniskillen Town Hall on Thursday to protest against the trust's decision

Emergency general surgery relates to the treatment of patients with conditions such as acute abdominal pain, infections, bleeding and trauma.

It includes operations such as removing a patient's gall bladder, appendix or part of the bowel.

The Western Trust said existing services including its emergency department and obstetrics remained unchanged.

It added there would be "minimal to no impact" on the other existing services at SWAH.

The trust said it was liaising with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and the Southern Health Trust on the new arrangements.