Member's statement: RQIA Inspection Report: Emergency General Surgery
Member's statement by Miss Jemma Dolan on .
- MLA
- Miss Jemma Dolan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- RQIA Inspection Report: Emergency General Surgery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5613305
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I express my serious concerns following the publication of a Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) inspection report on emergency general surgery pathways in the Western Health and Social Care Trust. Along with the majority of people in Fermanagh, I have long-held concerns about the temporary removal of emergency general surgery from the South West Acute Hospital. The RQIA report confirms that the temporary solution has been in place for far too long. Such arrangements have now been going on for almost three years, and patients and staff continue to bear the consequences. Although the report highlights progress in some areas, including improved patient transfers and positive clinical outcomes, it also identifies significant concerns about communication, governance, staffing pressures and the monitoring of patient outcomes. Crucially, the RQIA report has highlighted the need for better information on outcomes across the entire patient pathway. Until that work is completed, important questions remain unanswered about the overall impact of the temporary arrangements. Front-line healthcare workers deserve enormous credit for the professionalism and commitment that they continue to show in extremely challenging circumstances. For many people across Fermanagh and the wider south-west, however, the reality remains longer journeys for treatment, additional pressure on families and continued uncertainty over the future of services. Temporary measures cannot continue indefinitely. Patients and staff deserve certainty and confidence that services are planned around safety, need and equality of access. The Western Trust must now fully implement the RQIA report's recommendations. I have contacted the Minister of Health to ask him to ensure that resources, workforce planning and infrastructure are in place to deliver a sustainable, long-term solution for emergency general surgery in Fermanagh and in west Tyrone. There must now be a clear pathway towards the return of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital, delivering safe, high-quality care while ensuring that people in Fermanagh and west Tyrone have fair and equitable access to the hospital services that they need and deserve.
327 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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