Lisburn hospital to lose emergency surgery facilities

Another Northern hospital is to be stripped of its emergency surgery facilities, it was decided today.

Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn, Co Antrim, will cease to handle emergency cases from next month.

The Eastern Health and Social Services Board made the decision as part of a plan to develop the hospital as a special centre for elective surgery.

The decision is in line with plans previously agreed by the Down Lisburn Trust, the board and North's department of health to develop elective surgery at the Lagan Valley and send patients there from the larger Belfast hospitals.

Health Minister Shaun Woodward has to ratify the decision, but the board expects that to be a formality.

The move is a further sign of centralisation and follows the decision late last year to strip emergency admissions and emergency surgery from Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh and consolidate them in Enniskillen.

The Eastern Board said its decision was made after consideration of an independent report commissioned last year, which concluded it would be risky to try to maintain emergency surgery services at Lagan Valley.

The report cited what was described as “the limited ability of the hospital to provide a range of specialist surgical support services and to sustain a surgical staff rota 24 hours a day”.

Each year around 1,100 patients have been admitted to Lagan Valley in potential need of emergency surgery – with about 450 going on to have operations.

From next month, those patients will be admitted to other hospitals.

The board said it had been working closely with the Down Lisburn Trust and the other hospitals to ensure the switch takes place smoothly.

Eastern Board director of planning Anne Lynch said the hospital would continue to play a vital future role for its community in harmony with other larger hospitals in the board’s area.

“This is a logical and planned step, providing as it does for a more effective future integration of the role of Lagan Valley alongside that of other hospitals,” she said.

Ms Lynch added: “It means that Lagan Valley will be able to develop its role as a centre for elective surgery, and can focus upon this important task without the disruption that can arise from short-term emergency admissions.”

Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson expressed concerns about the decision and questioned whether the Eastern Board had really thought what they were doing through – particularly considering the traffic disruption due to be caused for the next three years by roadworks on the Westlink in Belfast.

Mr Donaldson said one of the major concerns about the Westlink work was the disruption it would cause for emergency services trying to gain access to either the City Hospital or Royal Hospital.

“Surely this needs to be considered alongside the decision to withdraw the emergency services from Lagan Valley.

“I wouldn’t have thought that the cited clinical risks would be able to outweigh the risks of the lengthened journey times to either of the main Belfast hospitals," he said.