{"id":184732,"date":"2025-10-08T05:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/184732\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T05:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:36:10","slug":"trust-ends-consultation-on-emergency-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/184732\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust ends consultation on emergency surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PacemakerPacemaker<\/p>\n

Emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital was halted in December 2022<\/p>\n

The Western Health Trust has announced it is closing public consultation on the permanent removal of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (Swah) in Enniskillen.<\/p>\n

In July, the trust had agreed to “pause and reconsider”<\/a> the consultation.<\/p>\n

After a meeting of the trust’s board on Tuesday it was decided the consultation would not recommence.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the trust said it would “now work with all relevant stakeholders to develop a clear vision for health and social care provision in Fermanagh and West Tyrone, including Swah as an integral part of how we serve this community”.<\/p>\n

It confirmed that emergency general surgery at the hospital would remain suspended while this was taking place.<\/p>\n

Emergency general surgery was temporarily suspended at the hospital in December 2022<\/a>, with some patients from Fermanagh and Tyrone having to travel to Londonderry, an hour and a half’s drive away.<\/p>\n

On 3 July the Western Trust’s board agreed to consult on the permanent removal of the service from Swah. That was paused two weeks later<\/a> at the request of Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.<\/p>\n

In its statement on Tuesday, the trust’s chief executive Neil Guckian said: “Since pausing the public consultation, we have reflected on what we have heard and it is important that I acknowledge the tremendous depth of feeling and concerns raised by people who have written to us and spoken to us directly.<\/p>\n

“As chief executive, I accept that there were flaws in our planned process. <\/p>\n

“The previous process from the public’s perspective felt rushed and we should have spent more time engaging with the local community before the launch of the consultation process.”<\/p>\n

He added: “We are steadfast in our commitment to the long-term sustainability and development of South West Acute Hospital (Swah) as a vital and successful hospital within the HSC regional network of hospitals.”<\/p>\n

‘Little to alleviate anxieties’<\/p>\n

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Pat Cullen of Sinn F\u00e9in welcomed the trust’s decision to end the consultation.<\/p>\n

However, she said the announcement “does little to alleviate the anxieties of people in Fermanagh and South Tyrone”.<\/p>\n

“The lack of timescales for a final vision plan adds to the growing concerns,” she said. <\/p>\n

“People in Fermanagh and West Tyrone are left with no reassurance about the future of emergency general surgery.<\/p>\n

“To have a temporary service withdrawal in place since December 2022 is totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

“We urge the trust to move at pace with this plan. It is urgent that the fears and anxieties of our constituents are alleviated.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pacemaker Emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital was halted in December 2022 The Western Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-184732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}