Debate contribution: South West Acute Hospital: Future of Services

Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on 9 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Colm Gildernew

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

9 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

South West Acute Hospital: Future of Services

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5086861

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh gach duine anseo anocht.

It is great to see the strength of feeling in the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, as is reflected in the attendance of so many people who have travelled so far to be here. I would also like to join my colleagues in wishing Deborah, her husband and her new baby, all the very best in the time ahead, and our thoughts are certainly with them. As local representatives, we can clearly see the strength of feeling that exists in our community about the ongoing issues at the SWAH. We are now approaching the three-year anniversary of the collapse of emergency general surgery, and it is important to reiterate that it was an unplanned collapse of a service, as opposed to any type of planned transformation. I have met SOAS representatives on a number of occasions, and I acknowledge their dedication and commitment to seeing emergency general surgery restored to the South West Acute Hospital. I also thank and acknowledge the very many patients, community groups, business leaders and constituents who have contacted me and shared their experiences with me and other colleagues on this issue. A very concerning picture has emerged of patients having to travel, sometimes up to and over two hours, to Altnagelvin in Derry, only to be told that they must join the back of the queue again, thereby enduring the notorious double wait. We all know the issues that are facing many of our EDs, with media reports regularly shining a spotlight on the grim reality of people languishing in pain for hours on end, sometimes without even the dignity of a hospital trolley, as well as pressure on healthcare staff and the moral hazard that they experience day and daily. Patients in Fermanagh and the surrounding areas fully deserve to have equal access to life-saving healthcare, and the Minister should be doing everything in his power to make it a reality. I reflect on what Trevor said earlier, and I fully agree that we absolutely have to look at this in the bigger picture. I have heard, at times, reference to Manchester models and London models in relation to the South West Acute Hospital. The reality is that we are not tasked with providing services to that type of demographic, and we have to design services for the demographic that we have. It is as simple as that, and we have to make it fair, equal and world leading. The hospital in Enniskillen was hard fought for, and I recall the battle to get that hospital there to serve the people of our area. It is undoubtedly one of the best healthcare facilities on this island. That is not disputed. However, it has never been allowed to reach its full potential. That is not a reflection in any way whatsoever on the excellent care that the staff provide at the SWAH, despite all the challenges. The staff deserve better also. Neither the Western Trust nor the Minister has taken responsibility for allowing the situation to develop in the first place or for providing solutions. The attitude of the Western Trust has been unhelpful. From day 1, it has taken a head-in-the-sand approach and has seemed unwilling to take seriously the concerns that have been raised by so many in our community. We saw that very clearly in its approach to the consultation over the summer, which was so poor that it had to be abandoned. The decision to hold only one consultation event, with a limited number of places available, was always bound to cause upset and outrage. The decision by the Minister — I welcome his attendance at the debate — to intervene and pause the consultation was very much the right one and very welcome. What we need to see now is a straightforward way in which we can ensure the future sustainability of the South West Acute Hospital for many years to come. We urgently need to see cross-border links being developed, as was initially planned for the South West Acute Hospital. We are constantly told that the population within the catchment of the hospital is not big enough to sustain the current level of front-line services, but those responsible for planning services continue to ignore and isolate the hospital from its natural hinterland counties of Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan and Donegal. There are strong precedents for cross-border cooperation between North and South. For example, the North West Cancer Centre in Derry and the All-Ireland Paediatric Cardiology Service, which I have visited. Both have been a massive success. They are models that need to be built upon, at pace, across the island. Finally, we now need to see a proper, respectful, inclusive and productive co-production and co-design process being put in place to allow the people of Fermanagh and Tyrone to engage on the basis of fairness and equality, to have a meaningful say in the health services that are being provided for the people of our constituency, and to ensure that those services are providing first-class health and emergency care for all. I will conclude my remarks there. I thank colleagues for taking part in the debate today.

869 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:05 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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