The South West Acute Hospital has welcomed a local doctor as a new emergency medicine consultant as the Western Trust continues to insist that the hospital remains a Type 1 Emergency Department.
An all-party working group has been established by the Trust and includes a number of local political representatives in an effort to promote the Enniskillen hospital as a great place to work.
The Trust has been criticised for its recruitment and retention of staff following its decision to suspend emergency general surgery services at the hospital in December.
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This week the Trust announced the appointment of Dr Stephen McKenzie as a consultant at the SWAH Emergency Department.
The former St Michael's College student said he was delighted to take up the post at the SWAH.
“I am delighted to take up my first Consultant post here at South West Acute Hospital, having qualified from Queen’s University and trained throughout Northern Ireland in the foundation programme and then the specialty training programme in Emergency Medicine.
“I have always wanted to work in emergency medicine and it is great to come back to work here in Fermanagh, where I live with my wife and two children, to this wonderful hospital.
"I worked here before as a foundation trainee, and was very aware that the facilities and high-tech equipment in SWAH is second to none.
"This is a really great place to work - the Emergency Department team are amazing and there are exceptional medical, nursing, AHP and support staff here.”
Campaign group Save Our Acute Services, who have led demonstrations calling for the resignation of the Trust board over the handling of emergency general surgery, have claimed that recent service changes mean the hospital does not have a Type 1 ED any longer.
The Trust have consistently denied this claim, and reaffirmed this after the release of a statement from the Department of Health.
“The suspension of emergency general surgery from South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) does not change its Type 1 ED status or the acute status of the hospital," the DoH statement says.
“The definition of a Type 1 Emergency Department is ‘A consultant-led service with designated accommodation for the reception of emergency care patients, providing both emergency medicine and emergency surgical services 24 hours a day.
“No hospital in Northern Ireland provide all types of emergency surgical services and the definition does not require this. Even the larger hospitals with very busy EDs do not provide everything.
“In line with the definition, emergency general surgery is not a pre-requisite. What is required is emergency surgical services. The temporary (as currently the case in SWAH) or permanent (as proposed for Daisy Hill Hospital) suspension of emergency general surgery is not a removal of emergency surgery and those changes will therefore not impact on the type of ED which it is.
“This is not a new policy position. It reflects existing policy.”
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