Minister’s vision for SWAH is ‘limited’

LOCAL health campaigners have challenged what they have branded “the limited vision” for the future use of the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).
On Friday, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt published the ‘Implementation and Funding Plan’ for initiatives to tackle hospital waiting lists, which included proposals for using some of the uncommissioned theatre capacity at the Enniskillen hospital.
While this has been welcomed by Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), the campaign noted the plan focused on the use of private consultants, and did not include plans for publicly-hired surgeons.
SOAS, which is working for the restoration of emergency general surgery at the hospital, said the plans for using some of the unused theatre space aligned with its ‘Roadmap for SWAH’.
However, a spokesman added that while Minister Nesbitt, pictured below,  had identified that building Health and Social Care (HSC) capacity across the region would be subject to recruitment of NHS staff to newly created posts, it provided no funding to commence this HSC recruitment process.
They noted that in his comments that were specific to SWAH, Minister Nesbitt “limited his ambitions” to facilitating private sector consultants.
The targets he identified for such private sector ‘insourcing’ included between 1,260-1,500 joints (hips, knees, elbows, etc) being replaced or 1,050-1,250 gallbladders being removed a year.
SOAS noted these targets were less than half the utilisation that is possible at SWAH and which t calculated as part of its Roadmap.
The campaign calculated a ‘realistic’ estimate of the potential of SWAH – with restored provision – to be able to deliver 3,150 additional elective surgical operations a year – with an upper limit of 6,000 a year if consultants perform an average of four procedures per session for 50 weeks of the year.
“The vision delivered by the Minister for Health for SWAH does not avail fully of the opportunity that SWAH offers and should be more ambitious,” said SOAS spokesperson Donal O’Cofaigh.
“The targets identified amount to approximately two consultant sessions a day at SWAH and is limited by the reliance on independent (private) sector consultants coming down from Belfast or elsewhere to do this work.
“SOAS is proposing a much more ambitious approach to elective surgery at SWAH. That starts with the HSC service actively recruiting to contract full-time surgical consultants to staff elective shifts at the hospital with the goal of fully utilising its unused theatre space.
“That would be a meaningful first step towards the sustainable restoration of emergency surgery at the hospital.”
He added, “The SOAS ‘Roadmap for SWAH’ concludes that access to emergency surgery at SWAH is vital to mitigate risks associated with postoperative bleeds and other risks following elective procedures – as these can happen when private consultants have left the hospital or at weekends.
“For elective care at SWAH to be safe, there needs to be access to emergency surgery at short notice to deal with these types of life-threatening incidents.
“SOAS seeks a holistic and ambitious approach to elective and emergency surgery at SWAH – where these services work together and deliver synergies for better outcomes for patients.”