The Herald has seen a recruitment advertisement from the Health and Social Care Board seeking to hire a Ward Manager for Ward 5 at SWAH, which houses the stroke unit. It states that the successful candidate is “required until April 30th 2018”. The “immediate, temporary, full-time vacancy” at 37.5 hours per week with a salary of up to £40,964 has arisen due to the retirement of the current Ward Manager. 

Meanwhile the pre-consultation for Reshaping Stroke Service in the North ended on 15th September, four days after a highly charged and emotive meeting in Enniskillen on the proposals that attracted hundreds of people.

Around 3,000 responses to the consultation survey were received from the Fermanagh Save our Services lobby group. However the Herald can reveal that following the consultation closure, a number of people in Co Fermanagh who completed responses have been contacted by Department of Health officials about the conditions in which they completed their submissions. 

UNISON’s Fermanagh branch secretary Jill Weir fears that this is an indication that a decision has already been made on the future of SWAH’s Stroke Unit, which is not expected until early 2018. 

“It is terrible and disgraceful behaviour from health officials who want to discredit the people of Fermanagh and only shows the sham of the whole pre-consultation process,” she said. 

“Thousands of responses were handed over by me that night in the Killyhevlin Hotel to the HSC officials with the message that I hoped every single person’s view would be taken into account. 

“No one’s hand was forced into responding. It’s very concerning if they are trying to insinuate that people were coerced into signing these documents and are now randomly phoning people to question their submissions.” 

UUP MLA Rosemary Barton has also expressed concern about this method of checking the authenticity of local respondents. 

“I am very concerned that consultation respondents would be contacted and asked if they had completed their response of their own accord, or were they doing so at the request of others? 

“I hope this will not be used as a tool to discredit the large number of responses that came in from the people of this area,” she told the Herald.