{"id":730323,"date":"2026-08-07T10:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730323\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T10:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:34:13","slug":"fear-over-delay-for-babys-operation-after-specialist-surgeon-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730323\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear over delay for baby’s operation after specialist surgeon resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surgery aims to improve the appearance of the face and resolve any feeding and speech problems that may occur.<\/p>\n

The South Eastern Trust delivers Northern Ireland’s Cleft Lip and Palate Service, external<\/a> in partnership with the Belfast Trust.<\/p>\n

The South Eastern Trust said it is a “highly specialised service requiring consultant surgeons with specific expertise in cleft surgery”.<\/p>\n

It said the post has been vacant since 19 June 2026 and while it has been advertised, no applications had been received by the closing date.<\/p>\n

The trust said it is “considering the most appropriate timing for re-advertising the post in order to maximise the likelihood of attracting suitable candidate”, but could not confirm a timescale for recruitment.<\/p>\n

It said it is working closely with Belfast Trust, the Department of Health, and regional partners “to explore options for maintaining service provision during the recruitment period”.<\/p>\n

As an immediate measure, a former cleft surgeon is providing locum sessions during the summer months.<\/p>\n

It added that there have been “advanced discussions” with specialist centres in the UK regarding future arrangements.<\/p>\n

This would involve specialist cleft surgeons travelling to Northern Ireland for outpatient assessments, surgical procedures and follow-up care, “ensuring that children can receive continuity of care locally wherever possible”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surgery aims to improve the appearance of the face and resolve any feeding and speech problems that may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-730323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730323","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=730323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}