IN a bid to ignite the campaign to have the GP surgery in Roslea reopened, residents in the area have spoken out about how the closure is impacting them.
The surgery closed in April 2017, and patients have since been transferred to Lisnaskea, resulting in a 35 mile round trip for residents in need of medical care in the Roslea area.
The closure left Roslea without a doctor for the first time in 170 years, and since the doors closed members of the community have been campaigning to have the service reinstated.
82-year-old Hugh Pat Clerken is a Roslea native who lives on the border and now has to travel 32 miles to attend the Doctor’s surgery in Lisnaskea.
“The experience I have is travelling around 32 miles, and it doesn’t always suit to do that. My wife and myself are both in our eighties and it is not easy getting down to Lisnaskea early in the morning because we are not up to that anymore. I am a heart patient – I have had open heart surgery a few years ago and then I had a heart attack since that.
I am on warfarin so every week I have to go down to Lisnaskea to get my bloods done, and I have to be there for a certain time to get the bloods sent off. I do not understand why there is no surgery here, or what the cause of the closure is. There are around 1,700 patients on the Roslea list, and they should be catered for in their own area.”
John McCluskey has been campaigning to get the Roslea surgery reopened and believes the community deserves and needs a GP.
“We are trying to revive the campaign because it was April last year when the place closed, and our demand is that the surgery is reopened in a full time basis.
We need a surgery here. Elderly people are suffering and that is not right in this day and age. It is impossible for people who are sick, and locals should be entitled to a better service that they are receiving.”
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