The Western Health and Social Care Trust has responded to a number of comments by those  affected by the suspension of energy surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), including staff, service users and their families, which have alleged serious concerns of bullying, mismanagement and disillusionment.

During a special meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, the campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) gave a detailed presentation, which included drawing comments taken from their own consultation.

The SOAS presentation included the following allegations:

• The Western Trust cannot be trusted. They play one side against the other. They do this repeatedly, even with their own staff.

• Staff are bullied.

• Staff know the proper distribution of surgeons in the Western Trust and in other Trusts across NI is not a real problem. It should simply be a condition of employment.

• Many surgeons go into private practice to ensure they have a range of experiences. They see a chronic lack of theatre space in Northern Ireland but the SWAH is totally underused.

• The Western Trust does little or nothing to inform, listen or consult SWAH staff who are superb carers and professionals.

• It is unclear to staff whether Western Trust mismanagement is dysfunctional or deliberate.

• Staff know Acute Trauma Life Support principles are not applied [in SWAH].

• The Trust values paper resources more than patients, which staff are left to deal with.

• Senior staff are disillusioned and are living to protect their reputations and futures.

In response to these allegations, a Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) spokesperson said: “The Western Trust values openness and transparency in all our communications and engagement processes, and this has been highlighted in our significant engagement with Fermanagh and Omagh Council, via open public forums, in recent months, in addition to the seven public face-to-face consultation events held in recent weeks.

“This is in addition to all regular communication with our staff via internal communications methods currently in place, plus staff-side engagement at the SWAH, and Staff Engagement Consultation Sessions, which are currently ongoing.

“There are very clear methods and processes in place where the Trust would encourage any staff member or senior leader within the organisation to raise concerns, and we would again highlight these as follows:

• Staff are encouraged in the first instance to raise any concerns with their line manager, and managers are expected to listen to and respond to staff concerns.

• In addition to the above, or where staff feel that they cannot do this, the Trust has a ‘Your Right to Raise a Concern (Whistleblowing) Policy’, which allows staff to raise any concerns they have about anything that is happening at work.

“This can be done anonymously if they do not feel comfortable releasing their name. These concerns can be raised with the Employee Relations Team, the Director of HR, the Chief Executive, the Chairman of the Trust Board, or via the nominated Non-Executive Director, i.e. the Chair of the Trust’s Audit Committee.

“The policy also highlights for staff a number of external bodies with whom they can raise a concern if they do not feel able to raise these concerns internally.

“The policy also provides details of the independent charity, Public Concern at Work, through which staff can seek independent advice.”

The Western Trust statement continued in respect of the other points raised.

While not commenting on each individual statement or allegation made by the SOAS presentation, it is important to emphasise the following further points also made by the Western Trust spokesperson:

• The Western Trust has in place a ‘Conflict, Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace’ policy for staff.

• Bullying and harassment in the workplace is unacceptable and will not be tolerated or condoned under any circumstances. The Trust strives to create an organisation that people want to be a part of and feel proud to work in by fostering a climate of dignity and respect amongst staff at all levels, and in demonstrating our commitment to deal with conflict, bullying and harassment effectively and promptly.

• The Trust provides regular updates to all staff through the use of internal communications channels including regular Staff (Trust) Communication Emails, updates on Staff Intranet (StaffWest) and on the Staff App (WeAreWest). There is also ongoing engagement with trade unions and regular trade union meetings in the SWAH.

• For Senior Leaders in the Trust, there are also regular Online ‘Senior Leaders Forum’ meetings which foster ‘openness and transparency’ for all senior leaders to have open discussion on all issues.

• In addition to the seven face-to-face consultation sessions for the public, the Trust is holding three Staff Engagement Consultation sessions on the temporary change to Emergency General Surgery at the SWAH.

• The health and wellbeing of our patients, clients and staff is our priority.