Children in the Western Trust area and across Northern Ireland will benefit from Paediatric surgery taking place at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), Enniskillen from this month.

The move was announced on Tuesday by The Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) and has been welcomed by Health Minister, Robin Swann.

The Western Trust will be providing a full day of paediatric general surgery per month at South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen.

The initiative is part of a Northern Ireland wide drive to improve access to elective paediatric general surgery.

The Minister noted that children and young people have been particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, adding: “I welcome the statement by Western Trust that they will provide additional theatre sessions for children at South West Acute Hospital. This is an important step to recover our elective paediatric surgery services after the difficult time over the last couple of years.”

The Minister added: “As I have previously said, I will have a relentless drive on bringing down waiting times. Today’s announcement by Western Trust and the steps taken in other Trusts will allow us to do so across elective paediatric general surgery. This is a positive development and something that needs to continue across all specialities and all Trusts.”

Anne Donaghey Assistant Director of Operations and Service Improvement for Omagh and South West Acute Hospital’s said: “We are delighted to be able to facilitate paediatric surgery one day per month to tackle regional waiting lists for young people who require routine surgery.

Anne continued: “The initial patients availing of this surgery will be Western Trust patients, with a maximum of eight children benefitting per day. We will be working with our HSC Trust colleagues to ensure that children across the region will receive their surgery as quickly as possible. This move is an illustration of the Western Trust working in partnership with regional colleagues to fulfil the Health Minister’s ambitions on reducing waiting lists for elective surgery across specialties.”