IT HAS been revealed that there are four people at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) who have been inpatients at the hospital for over a year.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request (FOI) by campaigners Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), the Western Trust released figures outlining the length of stays of patients at the SWAH.
It showed that between April 2024 and February 2025 the average stay was 8.05 days. This figure has increased every year since 2019/2020, when it was 6.07.
The longest average stay is in geriatric medicine, where the average stay was 27.8 days over the past year. This is down slightly on the past two years – it was 30.73 in 2022/23 and 29.48 in 23/24 – but up significantly from 2019/20 when it was 15.49.
The figures also showed the are currently four patients at the Enniskillen hospital who have been inpatients for over one year, one in general medicine and the other three in geriatric medicine.
The figures have once again highlighted how issues elsewhere in the health and social care system resulting in ‘bed blocking’ and stagnant patient flow through hospitals.
SOAS said this is having a knock-on affect, not just on patients waiting admission, but on our hard working staff at the hospital.
Noting the regular delays to patient admissions via the SWAH emergency department – with the Western Trust regularly announcing long backlogs at the ED – a SOAS spokesperson pointed to the fact shortages and delays in social and community care were resulting in patients taking up beds for longer than they should be.
“The back-door metric is because of the clogging inside the SWAH because there are patients there who cannot get social care assessments in order to enable them to get home, so beds are being filled for months not days,” they said.
A spokesperson for the Western Trust said they regretted the current situation.
“Due to patient confidentiality reasons we are unable to comment on individuals and by reporting on the very small numbers involved, this could easily identify patients,” they said.
“Some patients who have very complex needs can require bespoke placements/accommodation and unfortunately we have considerable challenges with finding suitable placements to meet their needs. These challenges are not unique to the Western Trust.
“We very much regret the distress delays can cause for patients and their families.
“We do not want patients to wait in hospital for longer than they need to and we continue to make every effort to meet the needs of all our patients and service users, and our staff are working tirelessly to secure suitable placements for those who need them.
“We regret that there is not more we can do to expedite this and find a resolution for those patients and families impacted.”
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