Debate contribution: South West Acute Hospital: Future of Services

Debate contribution by Mr Daniel McCrossan on 9 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Daniel McCrossan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

9 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

South West Acute Hospital: Future of Services

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5086841

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I echo the words of colleagues across the House and offer best wishes, on behalf of the SDLP, to Deborah Erskine and her husband on what, I hope, in a few days' or weeks' time, will be a very positive news story. I wish her well on that journey. I also welcome our friends from Fermanagh and Tyrone who are in the Gallery. You are welcome in the Assembly. Remember that this is your Assembly and that you have helped to bring about today's important discussion. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate on the future of this important hospital. To be clear, the SWAH is not just another hospital; it is a lifeline for rural communities across my constituency of West Tyrone, across Fermanagh and, of course, across the rest of Tyrone. It is also a lifeline for parts of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. Many people receive important treatment in that vital facility. At a cost of £276 million when it was first built in 2012 and with single en suite rooms for every patient, it is a state-of-the art facility that was opened barely a decade ago. It is shocking that we are discussing its future when its build is so new. To allow it to be hollowed out, downgraded or —.

I will give way.

Absolutely

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I appreciate Mr Clarke's intervention, and he is right: any action that is taken on the SWAH will have a consequence on other health facilities throughout Northern Ireland. We already see that play out particularly in Altnagelvin. I use that as a reference, because it is my closest hospital, and I have seen the huge crisis that it faces when dealing with the demand on its services. In December 2022, the Western Trust suspended emergency general surgery at SWAH. We were told that that was a temporary move, but, unfortunately, it has now dragged on for almost three years. We are now told that it will become permanent, which has come as a great disappointment to so many people. Patients in urgent need of surgery must travel two and a half hours to Altnagelvin or, as Mr Clarke referenced, to other medical facilities. That is not just inconvenient but unsafe, and it defies National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, which requires a 45-minute response to major trauma. If those travelling to Altnagelvin were to leave from Belleek today or from any part of Fermanagh for that matter, they would have to travel down that treacherous A5. Already quite stressed and maybe not able to get access to an ambulance because of the demand on that service, they would have to navigate difficult road conditions. When you put the full picture together, you see that it is complex and extremely frustrating and worrying for those who are concerned about their loved ones in that emergency situation. To be clear, the human cost is real, and the removal of services from rural communities is being felt acutely in places such as Fermanagh and Tyrone. There are a number of examples that I could use. There is a gentleman who has spent six months in hospital after being shuttled between those two hospitals. A young mother was traumatised after being forced to leave a newborn baby to travel to Altnagelvin from Fermanagh on a number of occasions. Another gentleman in his 50s was wrongly treated, and, unfortunately, during the transfer, his health and life were endangered. Those are not just statistics; they are real-life examples of the real-life effects of what is happening. They involve families whose lives will never be the same. The trust claims that patients can be safely transferred, yet even the RQIA has criticised the so-called double ED process, where Fermanagh patients present at SWAH only to be sent on to other hospitals such as Altnagelvin. Altnagelvin, to be clear, is an absolute crisis zone at the best of times. There are no quiet moments any more. There are no winter pressures: there are all-year, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week pressures in our emergency departments. It is inhumane of us to ask our healthcare staff to work in such a crisis-filled area where they are supposed to be treating patients with dignity. I can safely say from what I have witnessed in emergency departments that there is little dignity there at present, unfortunately. It is clear that the emergency department at Altnagelvin is in crisis. The Minister has recognised that there is an issue there — he has committed to looking at it in various pieces of correspondence with me and other MLAs — but it is unacceptable and needs to be dealt with. Patients wait for days. We used to say that it was hours and find that unacceptable, but patients wait for days on hard seats and sometimes wait days for a bed. Families are left in limbo, and staff, as I said, are stretched to breaking point. Altnagelvin is not a safe alternative for SWAH patients, certainly not for those in trauma situations where minutes literally matter. Ambulance cover is stretched, with category-2 response times averaging 68 minutes against a 15-minute target. Geography makes the risk even greater. The journey from Newtownbutler to Altnagelvin takes two and a half hours. That is the difference between life and death, quite literally. That is why SWAH must be treated as a rural hospital with a trauma lens applied. The debate is not just about emergency surgery but about the future of SWAH itself. The hospital has two operating theatres, as colleagues have pointed out, with 92 en suite rooms that have never been properly or fully commissioned.

With investment and a clear plan, the SWAH could be a hub for elective surgery, cutting the waiting lists in Northern Ireland, which are the longest in the UK, while retaining emergency surgical capacity for its rural population.

I welcome, and very much appreciate, the Minister's recent intervention. The Minister always speaks his mind, which is what I respect about Minister Nesbitt, who has a difficult job. However, we cannot allow the future of the SWAH to drift. Where trusts are failing, the Minister needs to intervene now. Thousands of people have marched and attended meetings, and cross-community support has been secured. The message from Fermanagh and Tyrone is clear: save this service now. Let us be clear: the Western Trust does not start and stop in Derry. It has a huge rural catchment area, and it is under immense pressure. We need to do more to ensure that our rural communities have access to those vital services. The people in the Gallery are the reason that we are having this debate today. If the SWAH is saved — I hope that it will be, Minister — it will have been down to the work of those people. They have worked tirelessly for the past number of years to raise the important challenges that are faced. They are defending and fighting for every single citizen in Tyrone and Fermanagh.

1,175 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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