Press Release

20 February 2008

South Eastern Trust Board statement on today’s Trust Board meeting

At this morning’s Trust Board meeting in Lisburn, Chief Executive John Compton moved to explain the context of the proposed transfer of maternity services out of the Lagan Valley Hospital.

He reminded Trust Board that in 2002 under the Developing Better Services strategy for hospital provision throughout Northern Ireland, inpatient obstetric services at Lagan Valley Hospital were scheduled for closure.

As the Comprehensive Spending Review is an integral part of the Programme for Government, Mr Compton said, it seemed prudent to look at obstetric services at this juncture.

“The first thing to remember is that this is a proposal, not a decision,” he said. “Along with all other trusts in Northern Ireland, we have been tasked with achieving savings of 3% for three years. Today the Trust Board considered our response to the Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety’s consultation on the Corporate Spending Review (CSR). This outlines actions we could take across all programmes of care, not just hospitals, to become more efficient and provide better value for money – it’s not about cutting services.”

The proposals refer to the period 2009-2011, so there are no immediate proposals for change. The Trust will now send its proposals to the Department at the end of February as requested and expects a signal on next steps before this summer, leading to a possible transfer of services late 2009-early 2010.

Mr Compton said, “There is no doubt that the Lagan Valley’s maternity unit is a very popular unit and I commend its excellent, caring and capable staff. In this changing environment, we have to consider professional demands, clinical effectiveness and patient safety, the scale of the unit and what the future holds, five and ten years from now. We also need to follow strategic directions already indicated to us.”

“The Lagan Valley hospital has a bright future as a centre for elective surgery for the wider Greater Belfast area, as well as a range of local hospital services for local people. This was also clearly laid down in the Developing Better Services strategy.”

“Equally there is no doubt that there is a lot of work to be done on the details of all our proposals and on synchronising the investment into the future of the hospital with the savings that will help fund that investment.”

Ends

For more information contact Christina Martin 028 9250 1209 (Down Lisburn end) or Joan McCallan 028 9151 2208 or 07803 210205 (Ulster Community & Hospitals end)