There is concern about the ongoing issues over recruitment at the South West Acute Hospital, and across the wider local health system, with figures showing the number of vacancies within the Western Trust has jumped over 85 per cent in the past five years.
The Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Active Recruitment Statistics report from the Department of Health, showed there are currently 6,920 vacancies across all health trusts in the North, as of September 2023.
Of those, 1,269 are at the Western Trust. While that is a 15 percent decrease on the previous year, it’s an 85.3 percent increase in vacancies at the Trust since 2018.
In December 2022 emergency general surgery (EGS) was withdrawn from the SWAH due to a severe shortage of consultant surgeons at the hospital.
It has since emerged the Western Trust had not actively advertised for emergency general surgeons for the SWAH for at least a year before this collapse in the rota, nor has it advertised for emergency general surgeons specifically for the Enniskillen hospital since this collapse – despite assuring both the public and the Department of Health it would do all it could to restore the service.
At the many public meetings held on the withdrawal of the SWAH EGS service over the past year, local members of the public and staff have suggested there are also issues of staff retention at the hospital.
Local campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) said the latest figures on the number of vacancies at the Trust add backing to these concerns.
A SOAS spokeswoman said, “The figures suggest that, as was written about and referenced before, the recruitment is probably one of the issues, but retention is the bigger issue.
“The report also reinforces our concerns that the hospital, under its current management, cannot recruit or else are determined not to recruit.”
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