Northern Trust recommends cutting emergency surgery from Causeway 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.
'Extremely challenging'
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.
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