A public meeting is to be held this evening (Thursday) as the fight to maintain services at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) enters another chapter.

From the fight to keep the maternity unit to the stroke unit, the people of Fermanagh have mobilised in strength to fight for their local hospital.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Councillor, Donal O’Cofaigh, CCLA, has organised a meeting for 7pm in Fermanagh House for those who want to get involved in the campaign.

Speaking about the latest announcement by the Western Trust that they are looking at the possibility of withdrawing emergency surgery from the SWAH, Councillor O’Cofaigh said: “We knew it was coming but it’s kind of shocking when it finally hits home.

“We need to organise ourselves to defend our health service at this time of crisis, and everybody has a role to play in that.

‘Determined’

“We need to be determined and we need to have a discussion of how best to proceed, so [this meeting] will be the first opportunity to do just that.”

Despite the relatively late call, Councillor O’Cofaigh has seen strong interest in the meeting.

“It is only a first meeting and I’m sure there will be plenty more. Anyone who wants to get involved, certainly I would encourage them to come along and have their input into how we proceed.”

He stressed how vital it is to have the community united on the issue if there is to be any chance of success, adding: “It’s another fight. We have had many before, and we have won tremendous success when no one thought it was possible, and I think that yet again it is possible to overturn this.

“There seems to be a degree of uncertainty among those in authority, but if they find that there is no opposition, I think things will proceed in the worst possible outcome for our county and our health service.

“I think with a strong opposition, it will force them to find solutions that can keep this service going and give us the time needed to take the steps to safeguard it for the long term.

“But there needs to be political will to do that, and we have to fight to make sure there is that political will,” added Councillor O’Cofaigh.

Local campaign group Save Our SWAH have also called on the public to mobilise and attend the meeting.

“No matter what way the health department reorganises or reconfigures any non-urgent provision, the region served by the SWAH must have access to emergency life-saving surgery,” a spokesperson for the group said.

“We have, as an example, examined every option proposed for stroke redesign in 2019. We were the only Northern Ireland area to be losing lives by being unable to access alternative life-saving treatment elsewhere within the golden hour of essential intervention time.”

The spokesperson referenced the comments of Dr. Mahendra Varma on the BBC on Tuesday when he said: “It has been shown in the medical literature, the longer the journey to a hospital, the greater the morbidity and mortality.”

Continuing, the spokesperson said: “Our SWAH hospital has a unique need for access to emergency surgery. We have a rural postcode. We have very poor access to emergency transport – particularly ambulances – and we cannot afford the time spent bypassing a state-of-the-art acute hospital to travel elsewhere when we need emergency care.”

They went on to say that if emergency surgery is lost, the SWAH would lose 24-hour access to imaging and scanning, the Accident and Emergency department, maternity services,    the children’s ward, the cardiac ward, Intensive care, and stroke services.

‘Disadvantaged’

“We are already acknowledged as a disadvantaged population due to inequality and inequity of health provision. It would be an insult to our lives in West Fermanagh to expect us to accept this,” added the spokesperson.

The announcement will also affect the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) and how it will cope with the possibility of having to transport people in Fermanagh to hospitals outside the county for emergency surgery.

NIAS has confirmed it is working with the Western Trust to “determine how best to manage such a situation”.

A NIAS spokesperson said: “These discussions will focus on how and where patients with potential surgical problems can be assessed and – if necessary – where they would receive definitive care.

“We recognise the benefits of providing surgery in a fully-resourced centre, but NIAS will be focusing on how to preserve emergency responses to the whole population of the south west while facilitating any surgical patients who require to be transferred by ambulance.

“NIAS has already submitted a business case regarding the uplift of ambulance resources across Northern Ireland, and is continuing to recruit and train additional staff in the interim.”