THERE is growing concern over the reduction of occupied beds at the SWAH, particularly in surgical and maternity services.
Figures seen by the ‘Herald have revealed the number of occupied beds at the Enniskillen hospital fell from 70,424 in 2018 to 60,802 in 2020.
While Covid restrictions may understandably account for some of that reduction, a breakdown of the figures has shown that in some wards the number of occupied beds had already begun dropping even before the pandemic, while others saw a worryingly large drop in occupied beds last year.
For example, Ward 3, which is a surgical ward including elective and emergency surgery, saw the number of occupied beds shrink from 8,501 in 2018, to 7,525 in 2019, to 6,545 in 2020.
Ward 9, which is a combined ward for both surgical services and gynae, had 7,287 occupied beds in 2018, went up to 7,764 in 2019, but then dropped significantly to 5,823 in 2020.
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