New Western Trust boss aims to tackle long waiting lists

The newly appointed Western Trust Chief Executive has set his sights on addressing long-standing waiting lists and improving health services in Derry.

High on the agenda is the recruitment of professionals in specialist areas which has proven difficult in the past.

Rebuilding services was also cited as a focus as the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Neil Guckian, who was the Director of Finance and Contracting at the Western Trust, took up his new role on July 1 when Dr Anne Kilgallen stepped down after four years in charge.

At a media briefing on Friday, Mr Guckian said he was ‘very proud’ while paying tribute to his predecessors including the outgoing Chief Executive.

He thanked staff and members of the public for their efforts during what has been a difficulty 18 months.

Given what staff have been through during the pandemic, Mr Guckian said, his first objective is to ensure workers rest and recover.

He also wants to get back to some form of normality and to learn from positive changes that were implemented during the pandemic.

The Chief Executive is keen to be a ‘strong advocate’ for the west.

“The level of social deprivation in the west is a major issue for the delivery of health and social care services. 

“The geography of the Trust is a challenge and all our elected representatives know that and how to get access to our services across such a wide area,” Mr Guckian said.

He also recognised that growing ‘demand and capacity gaps’ have created ‘unacceptable’ waiting lists and waiting times which put pressure on mental health services, acute services and community services.

RECRUITMENT

The Derry News recently reported issues with recruiting a Paediatric Ophthalmologist at Altnagelvin which is leading to a long waiting list of children who need eye surgery and assessments.

The Early Medical Abortion (EMA) service has also been suspended while the Trust tries to recruit ‘additional nursing and medical support’.

Recruitment has been a perennial problem which has impacted services in Derry and the wider Western Trust area.

Asked why that is, Mr Guckian said: “I think it’s the remoteness of the North West.  People in England have maybe never heard of it and have a bad image of it from the Troubles.

“We’re working away on that, the reputation of the west clinically is strong, I think into the future the medical school will be a marvellous opportunity to develop the image of the Trust.

“Particularly for medical staff but maybe for all staff.”

He added: “I think it’s a fantastic place to live, when people come here they tend to stay forever.

“That’s the interesting thing for me, I’m in the Trust a couple of years so I’ll keep plugging away to identify any other underlying reasons for it that we should be concerned about.”

‘WORKING TOGETHER’

The Chief Medical Officer in the Republic of Ireland has warned of a new Covid wave because of the more transmissible Delta variant and increased cases in multiple areas.

That has not been reflected in hospital admissions to date.

Mr Guckian said vaccines have been working effectively and the situation will have to be monitored to see if the Delta variant will have any major impact on hospital admissions.

However, he did say Northern Ireland would be doing modelling on worst case, middle case and best case scenarios if there were to be a new wave.

“The answer is vaccination and adhering to public health messages,” he added.

Finally, the Derry News asked Mr Guckian how the Trust intends to manage its deficit which recently sat around £40m while reducing waiting lists and improving services.

He said £20m has been taken off the deficit in recent years and it has not impacted on services.

“Longer waiting lists is a separate regional issue that is linked to the pandemic.

“We have further work that we believe will take another £10m off it and I have had a promise and commitment from the department to give us part funding.

“A combination of those measures will get us to a position where our deficit is common to all Trusts in Northern Ireland.”

He concluded: “Where we are not out of kilter with other Trusts it then becomes a regional approach to finances rather than the Western Trust having to look at individual elements of our finances and trying to do things that other Trusts aren’t doing.

“It’ll be one approach for NI and we’ll all be working together.

“We need to start tackling our demand-capacity gaps in the system and ensure the service meets the needs of the population.”