SDLP Foyle MLA Ma\rk H Durkan
While the Trust are preparing for Covid-19 patient numbers to double in the weeks ahead, Mr Durkan remarked that warning calls pre-pandemic regarding the state of the health service, exacerbated by perennial nursing shortages, were ignored.
He said pre-existing issues have now been magnified by the pandemic.
Said the Foyle MLA: “The Western Trust’s decision to postpone all elective outpatient, inpatient and day care surgeries is an extremely regrettable but necessary decision given the current juncture.
“I fully appreciate and in no way want to downplay the immense pressures currently facing the Western Trust and I Covid related absences among staff, now standing at 11%, have no doubt left many services hamstrung. However contingency plans should’ve been in place.
“Many patients here have been through agonising waits on already dire waiting lists, for these surgeries.
“This will not be the first time surgeries have been postponed or cancelled for many patients. For them this announcement will be a bitter pill to swallow.
“Our health service was crippled by pressures pre-pandemic; operating at a 12% shortfall in staff, battling with 2,300 unfilled posts due to medical professionals choosing more lucrative opportunities across the water.
“Not to mention over a decade of chronic underinvestment in the health service here.
“This is a global challenge and I appreciate that health services everywhere are overwhelmed. However, I can’t say this situation was entirely unforeseen.
“The perennial issue of nursing shortages here, which I persistently raised concerns about (even warned of consequences in the unlikely event of a pandemic), means our health staff have been sent into battle on their knees, unequipped and poorly resourced.
“I urge everyone to abide by the latest set of regulations, so we can get a handle on this virus, to allow our hospitals to cope and to ensure that we are not looking at the potential cancellation of red flag cancer surgeries in the weeks ahead, as has been the case in other trust areas.
“Our health staff have been failed by years of incompetence at the hands of the executive but we all have a collective duty to ensure that failure is not exacerbated in the weeks ahead.”
