Member's statement: South West Acute Hospital: Emergency General Surgery
Member's statement by Miss Jemma Dolan on .
- MLA
- Miss Jemma Dolan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 23 February 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- South West Acute Hospital: Emergency General Surgery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5399608
Read the official Assembly record
Text
This morning, my party colleagues and I joined members of the lobby group Save our Acute Services (SOAS) as they pushed a hospital bed up the avenue. I thank SOAS, those who travelled from Fermanagh and MLAs across the Chamber who joined the group to commit to supporting the fight to get emergency general surgery reinstated in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH). This has been going on since December 2022, and we, the people of Fermanagh and Tyrone, still have not received the certainty or the action that we deserve. The Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, must urgently provide a clear, detailed plan, with timescales, for the future delivery of emergency general surgery. The plan must set out a clear process for recruiting and retraining consultant general surgeons at the hospital to make the service safe and sustainable. So far, no such plan has been produced, but that failure cannot continue: the people of Fermanagh and Tyrone deserve better. Sinn Féin has been unwavering in its support for reinstating emergency general surgery at SWAH. The Health Minister is responsible for the final decision on emergency general surgery and must hold the trust to account for producing the comprehensive plan. The plan must give equal weight to the voices of the people in Fermanagh and Tyrone and the clinical evidence. When the consultation on the closure of emergency general surgery was announced, we demanded a process that reached all affected communities; instead, it was deeply flawed, and, thankfully, it was paused. However, that pause has gone on for too long. The Health Minister must now rebuild public confidence, listen to the community and publish the plan that ensures that SWAH can meet the needs of today and of the future. The ad hoc collapse of essential services is not transformation; it is unacceptable. The Health Minister and the Western Trust must focus immediately on recruiting the consultant surgeons whom we need to protect lives and maintain local healthcare. Sinn Féin will continue to fight to ensure that everyone in Fermanagh and Tyrone has access to high-quality, safe and effective clinical care. We should not have to wait longer or settle for anything less than the care that we deserve.
368 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.05 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.88 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.09 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.02 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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