South West Acute Hospital: Hundreds take part in protest

Protesters have formed a human chain around the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

Hundreds of people took part in the demonstration on Saturday against the loss of acute services.

The Western Trust announced the temporary withdrawal of emergency general surgery, earlier this month.

The organisers said it is a worrying time for health services in Fermanagh.

Dylan Quinn of the Save Our Acute Services campaign – which organised the protest – said there was a concern that the move would become permanent.

He said the human “ring of steel” symbolised the community encircling the hospital to defend the life-saving services it and the staff provides.

He highlighted the “impact on the community in terms of the health and wellbeing of somebody who is in need of emergency general surgery and then they are taken care of and put in an ambulance and transported to Altnagelvin or Craigavon hospitals that have already said they can’t cope”.

The Western 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 would resume.

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

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

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

Emergency general surgery will stop at SWAH on 18 December.

Geraldine McKay, the trust’s director of acute services, explained 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 by the announcement.

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

However, during the same period 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.