Causeway hospital doctor voices concern about 'domino effect' of removing emergency surgery from Coleraine
A senior Causeway Hospital doctor has said that many staff are concerned about the ‘domino effect’ proposed changes to emergency general surgery will have on the viability of the Coleraine site.
There has been ongoing concern on the Causeway Coast over the Northern Health Trust’s proposal to move emergency general surgery (EGS) from Coleraine to Antrim Area Hospital.
Speaking to our sister newspaper, the News Letter, the doctor said that many staff “have serious reservations” about the proposal.
The medic, who asked not to be named, said that a “dismantling domino effect” would likely follow if EGS is relocated from the north coast hospital – threatening the viability of the medical team, gastroenterology service, Emergency Department (ED), intensive care unit, and many other services.
The doctor said Antrim ED cannot cope as it is with numbers, and it is not uncommon for patients living within the Antrim catchment area to be diverted to Causeway ED.
Adding a large volume of complex emergency surgical patients from Causeway (around 1000-1500 patients per year) to “an already overwhelmed ED and surgical department in Antrim doesn’t make sense – it’s hard to see this move would improve patient safety”, the doctor said.
They said that under new proposals, “a number of surgical staff in Causeway would be expected to relocate” and the “human cost of this has not been weighed up”.
“Causeway medical staff are concerned that under these proposals many emergency surgical patients not requiring immediate surgical intervention would end up under the care of the medical team rather than surgeons.
“This would be inappropriate and unsafe practice, and would add to an already extremely challenging workload for the medics.”
The senior medic also told the News Letter that it is important that the public “aren’t misled into believing that they’re hearing the views of all medical and surgical doctors on the ground when the media talks about the ‘medical opinion’ or the ‘clinical consensus’.
“There are many of us with genuine clinical concerns about the impact these proposals would have on patient safety and the long-term viability of Causeway as a site for emergency care”.