
The Northern Health and Social Care Trust has been “left in no doubt that the community of Causeway Coast and Glens are against the removal of emergency surgery” at Causeway Hospital, Coleraine, a campaign group has stated.
SOS Causeway Hospital also said many questions “remain unanswered” despite a recent series of public meetings.
The Northern Trust is holding a public consultation into a proposal for all emergency surgery in the area to take place at Antrim Hospital and planned operations at Causeway Hospital.
The Trust considers this option would “maintain safe and effective care” and would provide a sustainable model for the future provision of general surgical services.
It has emphasised the importance of “planning its workforce pro-actively rather than waiting for and reacting to an inevitable collapse in the service”.
However, campaigners fear the current proposal and mitigations in place for the Trust’s “preferred option” are “not suffice” and have said the public is “in no way reassured or convinced that this will improve waiting list lengths and times or indeed improve the health and well-being of their lives”.
SOS Causeway Hospital chairperson Gemma Brolly said:
“Members of the NHSCT have spoken about the lack of public trust, this is their opportunity to do something about that.”
She claimed concerns voiced at the listening event in Coleraine were raised by service users, parents, grandparents, farmers and hospital staff.
Speaking at a listening event at Dunsilly Hotel in Antrim, William Taylor, of Farmers for Action, expressed concern about the proposal to remove emergency surgery from Causeway Hospital, describing farming as “an unsafe industry”.
Mr Taylor addressed the panel saying:
“We need hospitals to be open and active and in the locality. We are most concerned about the direction of travel.”
SOS Causeway Hospital is appealing to everyone to relay their concerns in writing before the consultation ends on Friday, November 29.
The campaigners are also seeking support for a rally from Causeway Hospital to Coleraine Town Hall, on Saturday, December 7, “in a bid to implore the Health Minister to gift us the retention of emergency and general surgery and not to be a Scrooge this Christmas, or any other”.
Neil Martin, the Trust’s director of strategic planning, performance and ICT, said:
“We are pleased that we’ve had the opportunity to discuss our proposals with almost 200 people across our four public engagement events.
“We’ve also had almost 100 written responses to our consultation to date, and if others wish to share their views with us, there is still time and we would encourage them to do so.”
The Trust says a review of general surgery within the Northern Trust is “made necessary by a number of factors including workforce challenges, which have made it increasingly difficult to maintain the required levels of staffing to deliver all aspects of general surgery services across two sites”.
Currently, the Northern Trust provides a range of surgeries at both Antrim and Causeway Hospitals.
These are: emergency general surgery, the treatment of patients for acute abdominal problems, soft tissue infections, bleeding and trauma; general surgery that focuses on diseases of the digestive tract and abdominal cavity; elective general surgery that is planned in advance such as gall bladder, hernia repair and other minor surgeries as well as major colorectal such as bowel resections often for the treatment of cancer and high volume surgery such as gall bladder removal.