A community meeting is taking place at the Derrygonnelly Community Centre tomorrow (Saturday, November 5th) from 4-5pm regarding the threat to emergency surgery at the SWAH, and everyone in the wider area is being urged to attend.
Just like the well-attended meeting held in Lisnaskea on Tuesday night, tomorrow’s meeting is to help people understand the impact removing the service will have on everyone in the local community.
That meeting is being organised by Dylan Quinn, part of the Save Our SWAH Services steering group, set up to co-ordinate the community response to the threat to the surgery service.
Mr Quinn and the group is also organising a ‘ring of steel’ event at the SWAH, where people will be joining hands around the hospital to show their support, on November 26th.
That event will be taking place a week before a major outdoor public rally at the Broadmeadow the following Friday, December 2nd, and will give people the chance to share their photos and stories of how the hospital service had saved their loved ones.
Mr Quinn said the whole idea of the ring of steel was to say, “this hospital has looked after you, now it’s time for us to look after this hospital.”
“The idea of the ring of steel was literally gathering together and hopefully have a family event, showing it is a generational issue,” he said.
“People will stand around the hospital, in a safe way obviously and not restricting any traffic or getting in the way of anything, and hold hands so we can get a photograph of the community raising a ring of steel around this hospital.
“These are our services, and they need to be protected.”
Mr Quinn told the Herald both the rallies and the meetings were about spreading the message of how serious this threat is.
“It’s about the risk to services, and the actual and real impact that’s going to have on people, not just now but going forward – people who are in their teens now, and their 20s, and their 30s and their 40s and will be older later on.
“This isn’t something we should just be worrying about now, this is something we need to think about in relation to our children, or parents and our grandparents.”
He added, “If you are talking about someone never mind coming from Enniskillen, but from Belleek or Garrison or Belcoo or Derrygonnelly or anywhere, and having to bypass the hospital and head off to Altnagelvin or Craigavon, it’s just crazy.
“Then there’s concern about the domino affect, the impact on other services if that goes.”
To read more on this story see this week’s Fermanagh Herald. Can’t get to the shop to collect your copy? No problem! You can download a copy straight to your device by following this link https://bit.ly/3gOl8G0
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere