Campaigners take fight for hospital services to Stormont

Campaigners have held a protest outside Stormont to demand the restoration of services at the South West Acute Hospital in County Fermanagh.

Emergency general surgery was temporarily suspended at the South West Acute Hospital (Swah) in December 2022, with some patients from Fermanagh and Tyrone having to travel to Londonderry, up to an hour-and-a-half's journey.

About 200 protesters arrived on buses from Enniskillen bringing members of the campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) to Stormont.

A hospital bed was pushed up the avenue, dressed with a quilt depicting the group's road map - a list of steps to return services to the hospital.

In July 2025, the Western Health and Social Care Trust's board agreed to consult on the permanent removal of the service from the hospital, which was later paused.

The Department of Health (DoH) said any decision on a permanent change to the delivery of emergency general surgery at Swah would require its approval.

Speaking to the crowd, Donal O'Cofaigh from SOAS said the decision to remove emergency general surgery from the hospital came down to "funding, priorities and political choices".

"We won't wait any longer, this service has to come back," he added.

"Lives are being lost, lives have been ruined, we can't have this, this is unfair, it's an abuse of our civil and human rights."

Some assembly members also attended the protest with Sinn Féin's Jemma Dolan, DUP's Deborah Erskine and Colin McGrath of the SDLP making short speeches to voice their support for the campaign.

Deborah Erskine, DUP assembly member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, told BBC News NI that people were "very concerned about the time it takes for them in an emergency situation to get to hospital".

"Those anxieties need to be heard, they need to be heard by the health minister," she said, adding that "you cannot play politics with people's lives".

She said she did not think the Department of Health was treating people in rural communities equally to those in urban areas.

"We have an amazing hospital, we have an amazing setting there in Enniskillen. Let's utilise it to its full potential, let's see it thrive, I believe that it is but I believe that we can do more," she added.

Jemma Dolan, Sinn Féin assembly member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, said Swah was initially picked to be in Fermanagh "so it could meet cross-border potential".

"We need the will from the health ministers north and south to bring the potential to the hospital and to make sure it's viable for the future," she said.

Campaigner James Francis Downey told BBC News NI there was not an "adequate health service in Fermanagh", saying this was a "disgrace".

"It's a beautiful hospital, a really wonderful hospital and it's not being utilised. It has the potential for cross-border healthcare from Fermanagh, Tyrone, parts of Sligo, Monaghan, all over."

Emergency general surgery relates to the treatment of patients with conditions such as acute abdominal pain, infections, bleeding and trauma.

It includes operations such as removing a patient's gall bladder, appendix or part of the bowel.

If left unattended these conditions can become life-threatening.

Most emergency general surgery operations are scheduled.