Fermanagh has everything Belfast has, and so much more!
That’s the message from one local man who returned home to work at the SWAH several years ago, and who now wants to highlight how great a place the state-of-the-art hospital is to work, and how great a place Fermanagh is to live, to any potential new recruits.
Since the onset of the current crisis at the Enniskillen hospital – where emergency general surgery has been removed due to a lack of staff, and some other key services are currently being staffed by locums – the Western Trust has repeatedly cited recruitment difficulties as the reason for its rota challenges and service changes.
Lisnaskea man Paul McGoldrick said he cannot understand why people would not want to come at the hospital.
Mr McGoldrick knows the SWAH inside out, having worked on it when it was being built, later returning to work at the hospital five years ago after working in other countries.
“We’re known for our friendliness, we’re laid back, and it’s quiet, but you’ve still got all the utilities that you want,” he said.
“You’ve everything around Enniskillen. What’s in Belfast that’s not in Enniskillen?
“You have all the same shops, you’ve all the same pubs and restaurants, but in Belfast you don’t have somewhere like the Lakeland Forum with its nice area around it, you don’t have somewhere like the Killyhevlin, you don’t have the forests or the countryside that we have.”
Mr McGoldrick said since returning home he had taking up mountain biking as a hobby, which had further proved to him who wonderful the county is.
“It really gets you out exploring Fermanagh, and you realise how really beautiful this place is, and how lucky and privileged we are to have such scenery and opportunities on our own doorstep,” he said, adding it was also a fishing paradise.
He questioned why any medical professional would prefer to live in Belfast instead of Fermanagh, where the cost of living is lower, but the quality of living is higher. He noted the county was also was safer and more scenic than more urban areas.
Mr McGoldrick added the hospital itself was a great place to work.
“People here in general are so friendly, and that obviously comes out in the workplace,” he said. “Everyone knows each other on a first name basis. There’s no mister or sir, it’s ‘what’s the craic Paddy’.”
He added, “I talk to student doctors, F1 and F2 doctors, from Belfast and different places. They all tell me how lovely Fermanagh is.”
Urging the Trust and the Department of Health to do much more to sell Fermanagh to potential recruits, Mr McGoldrick concluded, “I do not believe or accept the narrative that nobody wants to come work in Fermanagh.
“It’s up to the powers-that-be to put the right conditions in place to get people to come and work in this lovely county.”
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