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'Disappointment' over plan to cut emergency surgery at Causeway

Ita Dungan
BBC News NI
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BBC NI understands the proposed site is Antrim Area Hospital

Emergency General Surgery (EGS) is likely to be removed from Causeway Hospital, after the Northern Health Trust recommended providing the service at just one of its hospital sites.

The Trust's board says its preference is that EGS be located at Antrim Area Hospital.

Currently, it is spread between the Antrim Area and Causeway Hospitals.

The recommendation follows a review and a public consultation.

A woman with brown hair is looking into the camera. She wears glasses and is wearing a blue jumper and gold earrings.
Adele Tomb, from SOS Causeway Hospital, says the trust has not provided any reassurance to the group's concerns

'Not listened to'

Adele Tomb, from the campaign group SOS Causeway Hospital, said she's "hugely disappointed by the Trust's decision".

"We feel the community's voices have been completely disregarded. We've not been listened to," she told BBC News NI.

She said that the trust has not provided any "reassurance" to their concerns.

"We believe that by removing general surgery from Causeway Hospital, it will have a knock-on effect on other services."

'Absolutely necessary'

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James Patterson, Consultant at Causeway Hospital, says the move is "absolutely necessary"

James Patterson, a consultant at the Causeway Hospital, welcomed the recommendation.

"Our duty is to ensure that all of our patients across the entire trust have the best standard of both emergency and elective care that we can give them and I believe that this will provide that for us," he said.

"I do think it's absolutely necessary, because it would get to a service collapse.

"We need to keep providing care in a stable, sustainable manner and to continue until a collapse would be something that is not sustainable."

'Very concerned'

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Dr Owen Finnegan, former consultant at Causeway Hospital, says the plans will cause "major problems"

Dr Owen Finnegan, who is a former consultant at Causeway Hospital, said the response from the trust "was very superficial."

"They did not really address the major concerns which have been expressed by consultant staff both in Causeway and Antrim.

"This will have major problems... not just on Causeway, but on Antrim itself, which will not be able to cope with the extra workload.

"I would be very concerned that this will not have better outcomes, as is promised by the chief executive but it will be worse outcomes, not just for Causeway but for Antrim and for the whole of the Northern Trust as well."

'Extremely challenging'

Getty Images Sign at an entrance on a road pointing to Antrim Area Hospital's A&EGetty Images
The Trust's board says its preference is that EGS be located at Antrim Area Hospital

Senior management said that the duplication of services at both sites has put pressure on the hospitals and that the current system was "not sustainable".

They said they were faced with two choices, either a managed planned change to services or a total collapse of those services.

They have taken the decision to manage that change.

The review included a 14-week long public consultation. According to the Trust, the public who responded were overwhelmingly against the change in services.

However, the Trust say they believe the move is necessary.

Trust Chief Executive Jennifer Welsh described the review process as "extremely challenging".

If the proposal is signed off by the Department of Health, plans to consolidate EGS at Antrim Area Hospital will go ahead.

What is Emergency General Surgery?

EGS looks after patients who require general surgical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment in an unplanned way, often following presentation in the ED.

This would include emergency procedures like appendicitis or a blocked bowel.

The Causeway site will be used for elective general surgery. This is low complex surgery which can be planned, for example the removal of a gallbladder.

As is the case now, trauma patients, such as those that have been involved in road traffic accidents, will be transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for treatment.