FR. BRIAN D'Arcy has urged Fermanagh people to "put their heads above the parapet" and respond to a review on the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).

Speaking at a public meeting on Thursday last, Fr. D'Arcy said "urgent" responses are needed for a review by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), which centres on patient pathways associated with the suspension of Emergency General Surgery (EGS) at the SWAH.

"This is, I hate to say, the last hurrah," Fr. D'Arcy told those in attendance.

"We are at the stage where we need hard evidence; hard evidence from the people, and by the staff themselves.

“If RQIA doesn’t do this, we are going to have a bad fight, a mighty bad fight. This is our last chance!

"As a fellow Fermanagh person, would you please, please, please put your head above the parapet, because that's the only way!"

Fr. D'Arcy stressed that review doesn’t involve patients "telling on staff"; rather, it aims to highlight the "terrible conditions" they are working under.

"When we are asking people to talk with RQIA, we are not asking people to tell on our staff," Fr. D'Arcy said.

"We are asking people to tell their stories, because what's happening isn't fair on our neighbours, who are our staff.”

He added: "We are doing this because the staff need us to do it. They are working under terrible conditions."

As a local parish priest, Fr. D'Arcy said he had witnessed the impact that the removal of EGS has had on the SWAH.

"There are people now dying not because of the services they are not getting in the SWAH, they are dying because of the services they are getting," he claimed.

"The number of people who have said to me, ‘Please ensure that I am not brought back to hospital [the SWAH]’. That's where we are at."

Continuing, Fr. D'Arcy claimed: "The people don't want to go back to hospital. They have this hassle of going to ED.

“The staff are heroes. I don’t know how they do it," he added.

Fr. D'Arcy also claimed that people in Fermanagh had been "taken for a ride" in terms of health, infrastructure and jobs.

"We in Fermanagh are in a peculiar position," he continued.

"We are taken for a ride by a lot of people. Can you imagine a Minister coming from the North and South, to Fermanagh, to announce the railway [following the All-Island Strategic Rail Review], recognising that Fermanagh is the only county that it's not coming to?

“I have been to meetings to save BT. BT has not been saved. The same thing is happening with our hospital."

He added: "This review has to be driven by our people: us. I see a wonderful staff working under terrible conditions."