82% of Western Trust workers are women

The figure was disclosed at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Western Health and Social Care Trust Board in which Director of Finance Lesley Mitchell told members they would be ending the 2015/16 accounting year with a £37,000 surplus.

During the presentation, members were told that a staggering 81.68% of the 12,500 staff that make up the Western Trust are female, and just 18.32% are male.

It was also disclosed how 36 staff from the Trust had left the organisation this year through the voluntary exit scheme costing £1.095m and 43 employees had retired early because of ill health.

“We have reached a break even position for 15/16 with a small surplus of £37,000,” Mrs Mitchell told board members.

She revealed how public fund accounts, patients property accounts, charitable trust funds, the annual report and governmental accounts all have to be audited.

“Disclosure of Trust Board salaries has been included,” the Finance Director said. “And there is a requirement to indicate the highest earner and the average salary of employees. The highest earner currently earns five and a half times the average salary.”

Non executive director Joe Campbell commended the team for the break even position but said it was something that they could not take for granted.

He added that the audit team would be recommending the approval of the annuals reports and accounts.

At the meeting Medical Director Dermot Hughes, in his quality improvement monitoring report, revealed that the number of falls at Western Trust buildings has decreased by 9% in the last year, and falls have almost been halved in the past three years.

“Every fall is looked at in detail and action taken,” he said.

In his Infection Prevention and Control Update report he revealed how Altnagelvin Hospital had had no cases of MRSA in the past 273 days and they were hoping to continue this, and in essence they were moving to a “never never” situation.

In the past month there have been 11 cases of C-Diff however six of these were community acquired infections.

Speaking about surgical site surveillance Mr Hughes said that c-sections were becoming increasingly common and necessary in 30-40% of pregnancies.

However he said the wound infection rate was below 5%.

The Medical Director told members that the surgical site surveillance does improve outcomes.