A large public meeting is being hosted by Fermanagh campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) this evening at the Westville Hotel in Enniskillen on the future of emergency general surgery (EGS) at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).
Hundreds have turned out for the first SOAS meeting of 2026, which comes off the back of a busy year for the campaign, which is aimed at seeing EGS returned to the Enniskillen hospital, after it was suspended in late 2022.
Tonight’s meeting will outline the SOAS plan for the next three months, as community efforts continue to have EGS restored.
The Western Trust has always stated the removal of the service was temporary, due to staffing issues leading to an inability to fill the emergency surgical rota at the hospital, with any permanent removal of the service requiring a public consultation and ministerial approval.
The Trust opened that public consultation in July, however was forced to pause and ultimately close it in October after intervention from Health Minister Mike Nestbitt, following issues and ‘flaws’ in the process.
These included an underestimation by the Trust of the public interest in the issue in Fermanagh, with a large protest planned for the only public event in the county as part of the consultation at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen cancelled in July. The event was called off by the Trust following a risk assessment.
Last week SOAS announced it had served legal papers on the Trust, based on comments in November by Trust board chairman Dr Tom Frawley that it had been ‘inevitable’ the EGS service would not be returning as it was after being suspended.
