Former Belford surgeon backs MPs call for new hospital to be 'bold and ambitious'

Retired surgeon David Sedgwick has backed calls to ensure the Belford Hospital's replacement in Fort William has bold and ambitious ideas at the heart of its design and is fit for the 21st century.

 

Mr Sedgwick was speaking after Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford visited the Belford to meet frontline staff and management on Friday. Mr Blackford urged NHS bosses to ensure the new facility was 'bold and ambitious' and had 'surgical care at its core' to best serve the needs of the community.

 

'The NHS must ensure the new hospital has appropriate capabilities and the appropriate staff levels. So I’m calling for the new hospital to have two operating theatres and to employ generalist surgeons who perhaps don’t just serve the hospital in Fort William but fulfil the historic role which saw the Belford partnering with the hospital in Broadford on Skye - and perhaps even with the NHS hospital in Oban,' said Mr Blackford.

 

'Let’s make sure that when the new hospital is built it’s one we can be proud of and that we back the staff we have in Fort William. Let’s be ambitious, let’s be bold. Let’s build a general hospital that’s fit for purpose.

 

'Let’s have a general hospital in Fort William that has surgical care at its core, which can deliver for all the people in the western Highlands.'

 

Mr Sedgwick retired from his surgeon’s post at the Belford Hospital six years ago after more than two decades working in the hospital’s operating theatres.

 

For the past six years he has been part of surgical teaching teams visiting Rwanda, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Cambodia.

 

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Mr Sedgwick said he echoed 'wholeheartedly' the comments by Mr Blackford regarding the commitment and high quality of the present staff at the Belford Hospital.

 

'As a Consultant Rural General Surgeon for 28 years - 21 of which were at the Belford - and an active member of the steering group for the new hospital in Fort William, I would endorse the importance of having bold and ambitious ideas about the design of the new facility,' he said.

 

'It certainly requires two theatres and an endoscopy room to give an adequate service for resident specialist general surgeons and appropriate facilities for the visiting super-specialist surgeons from the bigger units.

 

'This would enable patients to have appropriate procedures performed locally and having to travel only for the more complex procedures or if they need intensive care support afterwards.

 

'There should also be an adequate Accident and Emergency department with a well equipped diagnostic department with X-ray, ultra-sound CT and MRI scanning. The hospital should be designed to have consultant-led general medical and anaesthetic departments.

 

'It is important that the board of NHS Highland and the Raigmore consultant body get fully behind these plans and we start to see

 

some movement in bringing them to fruition.'