THERE was a quadruple celebration at the SWAH yesterday (Tuesday) as three babies born at the Enniskillen hospital on the first day it opened returned to help mark its 10th birthday.
A special thanksgiving service led by the hospital’s chaplains was held to mark the special occasion, while the SWAH also welcomed back the first three babies delivered by its midwives to join in the celebrations. Shea Maguire, Ava Crowell and Hannah Shannon, along with their parents and the midwifery staff, helped cut a 10th birthday cake as part of the milestone-marking event.
The trio were the first of 12,363 babies to have been born at the £276 million state-of-the-art hospital since it opened on July 21st, 2012. Over the past ten years, a total of 87,725 day procedure cases have also been carried out at the SWAH, while there have been 332,930 emergency department attendances.
Reflecting on a busy and successful first decade, Western Trust chief executive Neil Guckian paid tribute to the heroes who had been providing the hospital’s award-winning services over the past ten years.
“On behalf of the Western Trust board, I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of our staff at the hospital for their dedication and commitment and pay tribute to their remarkable strength and resilience in delivering an exceptionally high quality service and for improving the lives of patients,” he said.
“We have faced many challenges particularly over the past two years in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and our staff have been real heroes during this time.”
Assistant director of acute services, Anne Donaghey, said the SWAH had “delivered on a promise to bring vital care and treatment to thousands of patients throughout Fermanagh and Tyrone and beyond.”
“The facilities at the hospital are fantastic and we are immensely proud of the dedication and commitment of our incredible staff,” she said.
“The hospital is seeing vast numbers of patients and is very popular with staff and patients. The hospital is offering a highly valuable service to both the local community and across Northern Ireland.”
Ms Donaghey looked forward to another successful ten years ahead.
“We hope our hospital will continue to develop over the coming years as we evolve to meet the needs of not just our local population but patients from around the region,” she said.
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