North West to benefit from major EU investment in health services

Western Health and Social Care Trust attendees at the launch of the EU funded Â¬8.8 million CAWT cross border Acute Hospital Services Project. Back row(left to right): Alan Moore, Director of Strategic Capital Development; Dr Ray Nethercott, Consultant Paediatrician and Paul Quigley, Assistant Director of Finance

The Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT) Acute Services Project has recently secured 8.8m Euro funding to assess and treat higher volumes of patients more effectively through improvements to, and modernisation of, current service delivery models.

This EU funding allocation has been secured by CAWT’s Health and Social Care Partnership, comprising the HSE, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, the Western Health and Social Care Trust, the Public Health Agency and the Health and Social Care Board.

Both scheduled and unscheduled care services will be reformed and modernised as part of the initiative, including dermatology, urology and vascular intervention services.

Unscheduled care initiatives being implemented include new advanced community paramedic services, clinical decision unit, community cardiac investigations and a community geriatrician-led service.

It is also planned to establish an integrated clinical dermatology network using telehealth technologies. Specialist training for staff across all of these areas will be undertaken to support the development and implementation of these new and innovative ways of working.

In the Western Trust area, there will also be A&E reform at Altnagelvin and SW Acute Hospitals and Advanced Paramedic Services in Castlederg among other developments.

In Donegal, there will be Advanced Paramedic Services in Buncrana and Carndonagh as well as A&E reform at Letterkenny University Hospital.

Opening the launch event, Project Chair Sean Murphy, General Manager of Letterkenny University Hospital, said: “The collaborative working required to deliver this suite of initiatives, with the support of the EU funding, will provide patients with additional quality services and, in many situations, enable them to be treated much closer to home. This project will also help to further strengthen and consolidate cross border and north/south co-operation in health and social care.”

Welcoming the launch of the CAWT Acute Hospitals Services project, Gina McIntyre, CEO of the Special EU Programmes Body, said: “This highly innovative EU INTERREG VA funded project will deliver real efficiencies in vital health and social care services for the benefit of thousands of people on a cross-border basis.”