UPDATED data from Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) has shown the average travel time for life-saving surgery for all patients in Fermanagh is now just under two hours.
The group presented the figures at the launch of its ‘New SWAH’ campaign at Fermanagh House last Thursday, in which it outlined its five point plan for the future of the SWAH, and also included highlights of its expert-commissioned research into the impact of removing emergency general surgery from the Enniskillen hospital.
SOAS had previously presented the travel time research – which it had commissioned an expert from Ulster University to carry out –covering the travel distances to a hospital with emergency surgery to the nearest of either Altnagelvin or Craigavon. However, since the suspension of emergency general surgery at SWAH, most local patients are being transferred to Derry. As such, the new figures cover Altnagelvin only.
The figures show 83,343 people will be outside the 60 minute travel band, which makes up 100 percent of the Fermanagh population, and 10 percent of the population of Tyrone.
They show the average travel time for Fermanagh is now 113 minutes, and that almost 14,000 people living in Enniskillen are now 106 minutes away from urgent and emergency surgery.
The longest travel time is from Newtownbutler, at 148 minutes, while Derrylin is 140 minutes, and Florencecourt and Kinawley is 133 minutes.
The closest areas in Fermanagh to emergency surgery at the moment is Kesh, Ederney and Lack, at 84 minutes.
The figures show 19,238 people in Fermanagh are now over two hours away from emergency general surgery.
As part of the presentation, SOAS also pointed to research showing there was “a significant body of peer-reviewed evidence” showing low-volume hospitals like the SWAH performed just as well as larger hospitals, contrary to claims by both the Western Trust and those working with the Department of Health.
As part of its five point plan for the hospital, it also outlined its proposed new Trust area. Noting the Western Trust area was already split into northern and southern sections, the group contested it made sense to split the Trust in two, and proposed a return to roughly the same area as the previous Sperrin Lakeland Trust.
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