Western Trust ‘committed’ to SWAH neonatal services

THE Western Health Trust has hit back at claims that the neonatal unit at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) is under long-term threat amid persistent staffing pressures.

The rebuke comes after councillors aired their concerns around the fate of the unit and other acute services at a recent meeting.

Deirdre Mahon, the Western Trust’s director of women and children’s services, said, “I want to acknowledge the public’s concern surrounding the current position of our neonatal unit in South West Acute Hospital.

“I would like to reassure expectant parents and the wider public that the Trust is committed to working through the staffing challenges faced in the neonatal unit at South West Acute Hospital and indeed support neonatal services and maternity services across the Trust as a whole.”

At the last monthly meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, independent councillor Josephine Deehan, who is a GP at the Strule Medical Practice in Omagh, described the current state of the neonatal unit as the “thin end of the wedge”.

She raised concerns over the current state of neonatal services, saying, “It will definitely influence the choice that parents have in where they deliver their child.”

Ms Mahon denied any claims that the current limited functioning of the unit is about “cutting neonatal or maternity services”.

“We are doing everything in our power to actively try to recruit and address gaps in our workforce to ensure a safe and sustainable neonatal service,” Ms Mahon said.

“However, we have, to date, been unsuccessful in attracting and employing trained/ experienced neonatal nurses to work in Enniskillen. We recognise that there is a regional and a national shortage of neonatal trained nurses and the situation in SWAH has been escalated to the Neonatal Network NI, PHA and HSCB.”

Covid-related absences have also piled additional pressure on the unit over the course of the pandemic.

Ms Mahon says the staffing crisis is impacting neonatal units across the North and that it is difficult to get cover from staff in other areas of the hospital due to the specialist nature of the work.

Contingency plans have been put in place at SWAH to ensure babies who are in need of care receive it safely. “This has included reducing cot capacity in order to provide emergency and stabilisation of sick and preterm babies to another regional unit for ongoing specialist care if required,” Ms Mahon said.

She also denied reports that babies have been transferred as far as Dublin for care.

As well as establishing cross-departmental “project board” to find solutions to the staffing pressures, the Trust have launched a recruitment campaign titled, ‘A great place to live and work’ in order to entice new recruits.