The South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen
WHILE the revelation that a ward in the new South West Acute Hospital is leased to a private healthcare company has created concerns in trade union circles, the Western Health and Social Care Trust stressed this week that ‘NHS’ patients are treated there as well.
Geraldine McKay, the Trust’s director of acute services, in a statement, said that, historically in Northern Ireland, when demand for hospital services exceeded capacity to provide those services, Trusts had used Independent Sector Providers to ensure that patients are treated within appropriate waiting times.
She went on : In this case, such waiting list initiatives are reflective of our contractual arrangement with 3FiveTwo Healthcare. It will ensure that Western Trust patients are able to access these services locally in the South West Acute Hospital.”
She revealed that 3Fivetwo Healthcare, a Belfast-based private healthcare provider, had approached the Trust about entering into a financial income lease to utilise Ward 4 at SWAH, and other facilities.”
Ward 4 is a 24 bedded unit that contains all fully-fitted single rooms compliant with government guidelines.
The private firm, 3Fivetwo, Ms McKay added, are invoiced in accordance with Trust Financial arrangements’.
She continued: “The South West Acute Hospital was planned and built with an element of ‘future proofing’ to take account of projected increases in demand with an ageing population over the next 10 to 15 years.
“This particular Waiting List Initiative uses some of this ‘future proofed’ accommodation to complement the extensive range of services already provided to patients at SWAH.
“To date there has been 210 inpatient and 650 outpatient attendances by Western Trust patients who have received treatment provided by 3FiveTwo Healthcare on Ward 4 at the South West Acute Hospital.”
However, opposition to what a spokesman described as, ‘private companies taking on a permanent life in a public space’ is mounting from within the trade union sector.
A senior Unison representative, Anne Speed branded the long-term use of a ward in SWAH by 3Fivetwo as, ‘a step too far’.
“We will be challenging this development in coming weeks. While we acknowledge that the independent (private) sector was supposed to be used on a temporary basis to reduce huge waiting lists, we now have the ludicrous situation where the public sector is paying the private sector hundreds of millions of pounds.”
The South West Acute Hospital opened two years ago at a cost of £276m. It has 300 self-contained single wards.
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