ON a cold and foggy Fermanagh night in November 2022, the people of the county came together to show their upset, anger and deep fear following the announcement emergency general surgery (EGS) was to be suspended at the SWAH.
The candle-lit crowd had gathered outside the Townhall, where officials from the Western Trust had been due to address local councillors on why the service was being removed.
Due to the adverse weather, though, they delivered the news via video link as they felt it had been too dangerous to make the journey from Derry to Enniskillen.
However they went on to outline, via their video links, how safe it was for local patients in emergency and life-threatening situations to make that same journey the other way around for treatment – a journey everyone local patient requiring EGS has had to take ever since.
The Trust also spent much time stressing the removal of the service was temporary. Exactly two years on, there is still no sign of its return.
Next week, on Thursday November 14 at 7pm, the people of the county are being asked to come out once again for another candle lit vigil, once again in the Diamond.
Organised by Save Our Acute Services, the campaign that has formed in response to the EGS removal, this vigil is being pitched as one of hope, with the hard work of the local volunteers helping keep the issue on the agenda and preventing the service from being quietly permanently removed in the background.
Speaking to the ‘Herald, a SOAS spokesperson said momentum was continuing to build, with hope still alive the service can be restored.
“There is always hope and we want the frontline staff and the patients of the area to realise that, and to stand together and symbolically show that they have hope in the fact that there will be a better outcome at the end of this campaign,” they said.
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