South West Acute Hospital: Over 1,000 attend demonstration over cuts

Over a thousand people have taken part in a demonstration in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, against cuts to hospital services.

The Western Health Trust announced the temporary withdrawal of emergency general surgery from the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) last month.

Campaigners who organised the protest accused the health trust of betraying the people of the south-west.

All political parties have said they are united in opposition to the plans.

It was the second demonstration in Enniskillen within a week, after hundreds of people formed a chain around the hospital last Saturday.

On Friday night a large sports hall inside the Lakeland Forum leisure centre was filled to capacity to hear from local representatives.

Hundreds of people who were not able to get inside gathered in the car park where they were told the fight would continue.

Olivia Donaghy said she had been attending Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Londonderry for cancer treatment over the past six months.

“I didn’t realise the distance ’til now,” she said.

“I would not like to be travelling that road if I was taking my children down for emergency surgery.”

“It’s a long journey – it’s an hour and a half, an hour and 40 minutes – and I am travelling from Irvinestown, which is probably one of the closest areas of Fermanagh to Altnagelvin,” she added.

Reggie Ferguson, the chairman of the Save Our Acute Services campaign group, said the loss of emergency surgery at the SWAH was one of the biggest issues to face the community in many years.

“Our hospital is very dear to us,” he said.

“It’s important that people come out and support what we are trying to do and then that they empower themselves by getting the politicians to sort this out because it is a political matter.”

Emergency general surgery will stop at the SWAH on 18 December.

The Western Health Trust said the temporary withdrawal of emergency general surgery was necessary to protect the public’s safety after it had problems recruiting surgical staff.

Despite saying the move was temporary, the trust did not say when it expected emergency general surgery to resume.

The emergency department and other services including obstetrics will continue to operate as normal.

Other surgeons, mostly of lower grade, will remain on site at the County Fermanagh hospital.

They will stabilise patients before they are transferred by ambulance to Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Derry, Craigavon Area Hospital in County Armagh or Sligo University Hospital across the border in the Republic of Ireland.

Geraldine McKay, the trust’s director of acute services, explained that the decision was taken because of a lack of consultant surgeons.

Ms McKay said the trust had done everything it could to maintain services and was disappointed that it had to make the announcement of the withdrawal of emergency surgery.

She explained that the trust had held six recruitment rounds since 2016 and in that time the hospital had gained five consultant surgeons.

However, during the same period the SWAH lost six consultants – three of whom retired while the other three moved on to other jobs.

In a further move, it has been confirmed the hospital is to become Northern Ireland’s third elective surgical hub.