THE threat to services at the South West Acute Hospital is the biggest local election issue ever for voters in Fermanagh.
That’s the assessment of campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), backed up by reports from local candidates from their experiences on the door steps as the electioneering for the May 18th Council election gets underway in earnest.
SOAS has said it is glad to see the majority of local political representatives had already backed the campaign to restore emergency and urgent surgery at the SWAH, and to protect the remaining services. It called on all political parties to clarify their commitment to restoring the full range of acute services at SWAH.
“The group believe that the current situation in SWAH is one of the most significant issues facing the south west,” said a SOAS spokesman.
“At present. SWAH cares for us and it employs 1600 people in this area.
“The upcoming elections on May 18th present the public with an opportunity to ensure that their local representatives are supporting the mandate that they have given to the campaign.”
SOAS has suggested two main questions to ask candidates on the door steps.
The first is if they support the SOAS ‘five point plan’ that was included on the over 30,000 letters signed by the people of Fermanagh and submitted to the Western Trust as part of its public consultation on the future of emergency general surgery at the SWAH.
That five point plan includes restoring urgent and emergency surgery services at the hospital, providing new initiatives to ensure a settle workforce, providing new surgical specialties, and relaunching the use of all five SWAH theatres.
The second question the voting public should ask candidates is if they support the first point of the SOAS plan, which calls for the establishment of a new NHS Trust for the south west that will be accountable to the people of the south west.
Noting the mandate given to the group by the huge response to its five point letter campaign, SOAS said it was also planning to hold an event that will offer the candidates the chance to take and answer questions from the public on the issue.
“We are at the moment planning to host and event where, because of the 30,267 people, we feel it’s never been more essential to know what the politicians would offer if they were voted in on this election,” they said.
“We plan to hold an event where we can ask what the candidates’ views are on the issue. It will give all of the candidates the opportunity to state what their intentions are if they are voted into the Council.”
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