Debate contribution: South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen

Debate contribution by Miss Áine Murphy on 24 February 2026.

MLA

Miss Áine Murphy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

24 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5404869

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the Adjournment debate, which was secured by my party colleague, on the future of the South West Acute Hospital and, indeed, its future on a cross-border basis. The South West Acute Hospital is a lifeline for people across Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh and the wider border region. It serves rural communities where patients already have to travel for hours to access emergency and specialist surgical care. For many families, it is the difference between timely treatment and dangerous delay. The clinical evidence is clear: there is a direct correlation between time delays for treatment and increased mortality rates.

We must approach the issue with ambition and realism. Border communities have long endured the disadvantage of partition, with fragmented services, unnecessary duplication in some areas and glaring gaps in others. Healthcare should not be one of those gaps. We now have a genuine opportunity to develop the South West Acute Hospital as a cross-border centre of excellence that works in partnership with services in other border counties. Indeed, when the hospital was commissioned, it was always anticipated that services would be expanded on a cross-border basis. Approximately four theatres and two wards were to be commissioned for use on that basis. The Department of Health and the Western Trust, however, have done little to realise the commissioning intent, and, as a result, those important resources have remained not commissioned for their intended purposes. It is well recognised that we can address the challenges with recruitment and retention of expert clinical staff through the delivery of an all-island service to a population of seven million. Continuing to provide services to five million people in the South and fewer than two million people in the North will remain a barrier to recruitment and retention of staff and must therefore be urgently addressed. Staff at the South West Acute Hospital are highly expert and committed professionals who deserve certainty about the hospital's future. Repeated reviews, service changes and staffing challenges have created understandable anxiety in that community. We must now provide a clear strategic direction. The existing models of all-island service delivery show that it can be delivered safely and effectively and that world-class clinical outcomes can be delivered for citizens on both sides of the border. Importantly, this debate must be grounded in the needs and experiences of our rural population. Rural demographics must be considered when commissioning health and social care services. This is also about equality. Rural border communities are entitled to integrated solutions that reflect how they live their lives along the border region, while staff are entitled to stability, investment and long-term planning. Minister, I will address the issue of the ongoing suspension of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital. Seven months ago, you asked the trust to pause the consultation on the permanent removal of EGS. Seven months later, the people of Fermanagh and Tyrone are still waiting for a way forward. That prolonged uncertainty is simply unacceptable, and soon we will be eight or nine months down the line. Yesterday, party colleagues and constituency colleagues stood with members of our local community and the local lobby group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS). I take the opportunity to welcome Helen and Jimmy, who have made it up the road two days on the bounce now, to the Public Gallery. They have clocked up a lot of miles to join us here today. People gathered at the front steps yesterday to call for emergency general surgery to be reinstated at the hospital. Those people are patients, families and healthcare workers, all of whom care deeply about their local hospital and about the safety of service in their area. They deserve honesty, transparency and respect, not the confusion and uncertainty that has been shown to date. Minister, the trust has indicated that it has written to your Department to ask whether you wish to make the case for commissioning a new emergency general surgery service model. I recently submitted a question for written answer to you on that very issue, but, unfortunately, you have not answered it to date. Given the strength of public concern and the ongoing uncertainty, I ask you to provide clarity today. I put this question to you directly: have you requested that the Western Trust develop a fully costed business case to deliver a new EGS service at the South West Acute Hospital? The people of Fermanagh and Tyrone deserve answers.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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