A FERMANAGH woman has been raising awareness of the situation facing local patients here in the county after her TikTok video on her family’s struggle to get treatment for their elderly mother went viral.
Aravon McCann, who has over 40,000 followers, posted the video to TikTok earlier this summer, after she and her sister tried in vain to get their 95-year-old mum an appointment with Maple Healthcare in Lisnaskea.
The practice is one of the largest in the North, with around 16,000 patients on its books, after it absorbed patients from other practices that had closed in the local area, including Maguiresbridge.
In the video, which has been viewed over half-a-million times, she outlined how after calling the Lisnaskea practice for four days to try to get an appointment, to no avail, her sister left a hand written note at the practice desperately asking for an appointment.
The practice responded by sending a text to what they thought was the 95-year-old – although it was Aravon who received the text – stating that was an “inappropriate pathway” and she must call only between 9am-10.30am to make an appointment. The text even include an error in the number, which actually connected to St Kevin’s College kitchen, not the health centre.
“This is my second time to make this video as I was so angry in the first one I was welling up with tears,” said Aravon. “I am appalled at Lisnaskea Health Centre. Have you lost all humanity?”
She went on to urge the practice to reopen its waiting room and allow patients back in, as was normal practice pre-Covid.
Stating she was “disgusted,” Aravon added, “Look after the old people – it’s somebody’s mother, somebody’s father, somebody’s uncle, and it could be yours.”
Aravon’s video was picked up by UTV last week. Speaking to the broadcaster, she said if it hadn’t been for her family fighting for their mother to be seen, she would not be her today.
“Mummy was dying,” Aravon told UTV. “That is the reality, and that’s the sad bit, other than her family network she wouldn’t be here today.”
In response to the broadcast, Maple said it could not comment on individual cases, but added, “Similar to most practices in Northern Ireland, Lisnaskea Medical Practice faces ongoing challenges. We continue to review our procedures to provide the best level of care.”
Aravon has now posted a follow-up video on TikTok, explaining how they eventually had to bring their mother to the local emergency department, even though the last thing they wanted to do was bring their mother to sit on a hard seat for hours on end.
Stating they only brought their mother to the ED as they didn’t have a choice, Aravon noted that the lack of GP access was putting more pressure on emergency departments, which are only supposed to be for accidents and emergencies.
“It’s not for every Joe Blogs who has an ailment to rock up at their door. That is where the thing is going wrong,” she said, noting that people were attended the ED for issues a GP should be dealing with.
“It’s time for change,” she said. “You need to open your doors again, you need to let people back in.
“Stop telling people if they don’t have an appointment they can go to A&E. That is not the answer.”
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