IT HELPS hundreds of babies across Ireland each year, and now the SWAH-based Human Milk Bank has issued a fresh appeal for donor mums to help it continue it’s life-saving work. The only one of its kind on the island of Ireland, the team at the Western Trust run facility, which provides breast milk to neonatal […]
Health rumours could force staff to leave SWAH
STAFF at the South West Acute Hospital “have expressed their disappointment with the rumours” that the ICU department was under threat after the Trust defiantly said it won’t be downgraded. Leading Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Monica Monaghan, feels that speculation on the future of the South West Acute Hospital is having a major affect on the recruitment […]
Trust says ICU at SWAH won’t be downgraded
THE Western Health and Social Care Trust has said there’s “no plans whatsoever” to downgrade the ICU department at the South West Acute Hospital after rumours circulated over its future. There had been speculation locally that the future of the intensive care unit at the SWAH was in doubt, after months of campaigning in a bid […]
Heartfelt appeal as Lisa McHugh’s daughter battles RSV
LOCAL Country music star Lisa McHugh is warning parents to “speak up to protect your baby from illness”, as her daughter Hallie battles Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) at SWAH. “I can’t describe how horrendous it has been to watch her so weak and in so much pain and being unable to take that pain away,” Lisa posted on […]
Rally for SWAH in Enniskillen tomorrow
THE PEOPLE of Fermanagh are being urged to wrap up this Thursday evening and come out to join the fight to save our services and support the staff at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH). From Kesh to Kinawley, Pettigo to Newtown, the hard working volunteers from Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) have been busy in […]
Life on hold for Fermanagh patient in pain ‘24/7’
A FERMANAGH woman who has been suffering in constant pain without treatment for almost two years has spoken of how she has been left unable to live her life. Caroline Diver from Enniskillen is one of many local patients left in the lurch by the reduction in local osteoporosis services. More than a year-and-a-half after first being diagnosed with 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. […]
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 […]