08/07/2025
The Western Trust is proposing that all Emergency General Surgery services for the Trust’s area are delivered from the Altnagelvin Hospital site on a permanent basis supported by Ambulatory and Elective General Surgery on both the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) and Altnagelvin Hospital sites.
The proposal to consult on this was approved at a meeting of the Western Trust’s Trust Board on Thursday 03 July 2025 and the consultation will be formally launched on Tuesday 08 July 2025 for a period of 14 weeks. The consultation will close on 14 October 2025 and the outcome of the consultation will be considered at a Trust Board meeting thereafter.
For further information and consultation events registration, visit our Emergency General Surgery Consultation Page
Since the 19 December 2022, as a temporary measure, in response to difficulties in recruiting and retaining consultant general surgeons resulting in the inability to sustain a 24/7 consultant rota, the Western Trust consolidated Emergency General Surgery to Altnagelvin Hospital to maintain the safety of the service for all patients. Ambulatory surgical services were established at both the South West Acute and Altnagelvin Hospital sites at this point.
Speaking at the Trust Board meeting, the Chief Executive, Neil Guckian said:
“Since the temporary suspension of Emergency General Surgery at the South West Acute Hospital, patient pathways put in place have been working effectively and there has been no evidence of any patient safety concern.
“The Trust has carefully monitored all aspects of the temporary change throughout the past 31 months and independent data indicates that patients who require Emergency General Surgery that come to Altnagelvin for their treatment, have better clinical outcomes.
“The publication of the Review of General Surgery – Standards and a Way Forward (June 2022) set the regional standards to ensure the best clinical outcomes for patients who need Emergency General Surgery. It is not possible to meet these important safety standards in SWAH. Our Surgical team advises that delivering all inpatient Emergency General Surgery from the Altnagelvin site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week is the only way we can safely meet these regional standards.”
Mark Gillespie, Director of Surgery, Paediatrics and Women’s Health said:
“It is important that I say to the public that the provision of acute services at the South West Acute Hospital is a top priority for the Trust, and it will remain an acute hospital site with 24/7 Type 1 Emergency Department services, full resuscitation facilities, ICU and is part of the major trauma network. SWAH has a wide range of vibrant medical specialties and is a teaching hospital.
“The Trust supported by the Department of Health remains committed to the long-term development and vision for SWAH, which has been evident in the success of the Regional Elective Overnight Stay Centre. SWAH is delivering its full commissioned elective capacity and we want to expand that.”
“I know there is a tremendous depth of feeling on this locally and I would encourage everyone to respond to our consultation document.”
The Trust’s Medical Director, Dr Brendan Lavery said:
“An independent organisation called CHKS analyses all hospital admissions in Northern Ireland, England and Wales and provides outcome data which can be used as safety measures for patient care. This has shown that mortality or risk of death has decreased since the temporary suspension of Emergency General Surgery in SWAH with approximately one life being saved every 40 days. Surgical complication rates have fallen by 17.1% and readmissions after 30 days is significantly below that of our previous service in SWAH. All of the available independent data has shown improved clinical outcomes for patients with surgical pathology who would previously have been cared for in SWAH.”
The Public Consultation is open to 14 October 2025.
In addition to responding to the consultation document, the Trust will be holding two face-to-face public consultation sessions on the proposed permanent changes to Emergency General Surgery across the Western Trust area. The sessions will take place on:
- 15 July 2025 at the Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen from 7pm to 9pm
- 17 July 2025 at the Waterfoot Hotel, Derry/Londonderry from 7pm to 9pm
In order to facilitate everyone the Trust will also be hosting a further virtual online event:
- 27th August 2025 from 7:00PM – 9:00PM