The amount of surgeries carried out at the South West Acute Hospital in the last year classified as needed ‘immediately’ is twice that of the numbers carried out at Altnagelvin in the same period.
A campaign group fighting for the retention of emergency general surgery at the Enniskillen hospital say the figures show the need for increased surgical services there. However, figures released by the Department also show that the SWAH carried out the least amount of operations out of any hospital in Northern Ireland in the last year in total, while Altnagelvin was among the highest.
O’Cofaigh said: “Previously our campaign team revealed that the decision by the Western Trust to remove urgent and emergency surgery from SWAH will leave more than 83,000 people living here being left outside the ‘golden hour’. In response, the experts of the Western Trust said that the golden hour is outdated.
“This likely reflects the size of the agricultural and industrial sectors here, the poor roads infrastructure and high levels of deprivation.