YET another service has gone at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH). The Osteoporosis Clinic, which was held once a week and gave essential medical treatment to those suffering from the condition, has closed temporarily due to a staffing shortage. Worse still, some patients are unaware of the closure, and those who do know about it […]
Fighting for rights was ‘my life’, says Benny Cassidy
AFTER almost 40 years of campaigning for better rights for healthcare staff and patrolling the corridors of Enniskillen’s hospitals, Benny Cassidy has parked up his wheelchair for the final time. Since 1985, the much-loved Enniskillen man has been a constant at Fermanagh’s hospitals, first at the Old County Hospital, then at the Erne Hospital, and most […]
Review offers hope for Fermanagh hospital services
A REGULATION and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) review has offered campaigners hope that sense will prevail and the Department of Health will bring forward plans to restore emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH). Local hospital campaign group, Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), has welcomed this week’s announcement by the RQIA that it has been commissioned by the […]
Average wait ‘over 40 hours’ for bed at Altnagelvin
THE Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) group has claimed it takes an average time of ‘over 40 hours’ for emergency surgical patients to get a bed in the Altnagelvin Hospital. As part of a large submission made by SOAS to the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), the campaign highlighted how patients from SWAH are being forced […]
Fermanagh junior doctors’ strike to cause disruption
FERMANAGH patients have been warned that the health service will experience widespread disruption this week due to the two-day junior doctors’ strike. Junior doctors in Northern Ireland are staging the industrial action after pay talks with the Department of Health broke down earlier this year. The strike action will take place from 7am today (Wednesday) to 7am on Friday. […]
Ringfenced beds at SWAH ‘difficult to maintain’
DESPITE assurances of around two ringfenced beds for patients transferred from South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) to Altnagelvin Hospital for emergency general surgery, the Western Health and Social Care Trust has confirmed this proved “difficult to maintain” and the beds were reallocated. However, it has since been stressed the beds have been reinstated as of […]
Blunder means free SWAH parking for the rest of month
YOU should always read the small print. That’s what officials at Stormont were telling themselves this week after a legislative blunder meant there will now be free parking at Northern Ireland’s hospitals for the rest of this month. Drivers visiting the South West Area Hospital in Enniskillen are sure to make the most of the loophole despite the congestion and […]
‘I’d rather die than go back to SWAH A&E’
A WOMAN in her late 70’s has been left badly shaken after a trip to A&E at the South West Area Hospital left her ‘emotionally and physically traumatised’. Following a harrowing isolated 12-hour wait, the patient, who went into the emergency department after becoming very short of breath said: “If I ever get sick again I will die […]
Top prizes up for grabs in SWAH fundraiser
Irvinestown man Marcus Corrigan hosting a ‘Night at the Races’ in Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen to raise funds for SWAH chair beds.
Another service gone at SWAH in Fermanagh
THE OPALS programme is not the first innovative and wide-reaching initiative to have been lost from the SWAH, with a preventative cardiology service also now no longer available at the Enniskillen hospital. A Freedom of Information request by Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), which was returned last week, revealed the much-praised ‘Our Hearts Our Minds’ service was removed […]