Speaking following a well-attended and heated Pathfinder meeting, held by the Western Trust in Roslea last week, local activist John McCluskey said the campaign for a new surgery in the area had taken on “a new momentum” since the meeting. 

He said the strong turnout at last week’s event, which saw the largest crowd ever at an event in the Roslea Community Centre, had shown Trust bosses the strength of feeling in the area. 

“The people of Roslea are so angry about the situation that they are now asking if there should be an enquiry into the reasons given by Maple Health Care as to the closure of Roslea Surgery,” said Mr McCluskey, adding the community were “expecting a positive result in the very near future.”

“We believe that the health authority now realise the seriousness of this issue that they not only sent along their chief executive, Anne Kilgallen and deputy, Kieran Downey, to the meeting but they have now agreed to come back to us within a fortnight,” he continued. 

“The people of Roslea are now expecting their suggestions to be implemented one of which includes a mobile surgery with all the necessary facilities.” 

Last week’s meeting in Roslea was one of the last in a series of the Pathfinder public consultation meetings held by the Western Trust with the aim of getting community feedback on the future direction of the local health centre. 

While GP surgeries are independently run and not under the remit of the Trust, Mr Downey last week gave assurances the Trust would do all its can to return primary care services to the Roslea area. 

However, Mr Downey was frank in his assessment of the situation, telling the meeting the days of Dr Darcy, a former GP in the area, who famously travelled the countryside visiting patients on his bike, were over. 

“The reality we’re facing is our GP and primary care services are retracting and retracting,” he said. “GPs are not going to come and work in single GP practices going forward.”

He added: “We are going to have to think outside the box, and look at ways we could lure them back into general practice.”