Southern Trust General Surgery Update – Questions and Answers

Patients who attend Daisy Hill Emergency Department who require admission for emergency surgical treatment (approximately 5-6 per day) will be transferred to Craigavon for ongoing care during this time.

There will be 24/7 anaesthetic and surgical cover for both Daisy Hill and Craigavon.

Arrangements will be made on site for any patients in extreme circumstances who are considered unfit for transfer from Daisy Hill.

999 should be called in the usual way. The operator will assess the situation and dispatch an ambulance/air ambulance as usual and work through the Northern Ireland Trauma Network if appropriate to agree the most suitable hospital for example, Daisy Hill, Craigavon or the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Elective (planned) surgery will continue from Daisy Hill, Craigavon Area and South Tyrone hospitals. It is hoped through our longer term plans that we will be able to enhance our surgical capacity across our sites to address the growing waiting times for many patients.

The Surgical Nursing workforce will have the option to remain in their designated wards at Daisy Hill to cover continued elective surgery and care of acute medical patients.  New surgical models including assessment and ambulatory services will present further opportunities for surgical nurses across the Trust.

We will continue to support the same number of trainee surgical doctors who will rotate across Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospitals for a range of emergency, elective and outpatient experience.

Daisy Hill Hospital’s ED team looks after well over 4000 patients every month with a wide range of conditions across a many specialties. The team will continue to assess surgical patients who they will refer for other appropriate treatment or transfer to Craigavon if required.

Daisy Hill ED remains absolutely essential in meeting the unscheduled care needs of our local population.

We remind anyone who needs to attend our EDs or Minor Injuries service with less urgent symptoms to continue to phone first Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm 0300 123 3111.

Daisy Hill is a very busy and essential part of the Southern Trust acute hospital network. Along with Craigavon, it has a very vibrant range of acute specialist services including general medicine, surgical, renal, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology which are needed to serve our population of approximately 383, 541 people. We want to develop and enhance our Trust wide surgical service to offer the same safety, quality and care for all patients attending – Daisy Hill, Craigavon or South Tyrone hospitals.