Dear Madam, - I feel really sorry for the family in last week’s paper who had to wait in A&E for so long before their sick relative was seen. However, I feel just as sorry for the staff who have to work in these conditions. I too have experienced a wait in SWAH A&E after being sent there by my G.P. (there were no beds in the children’s ward). It’s not something I would want to do again especially as I had both a sick toddler and a new-born baby to contend with. I don’t think it’s fair to say care is non-existent in the South West Acute Hospital though. It is full of people who care dearly but unfortunately the way it, and the healthcare system in general, is managed means staff can’t give the level of care they would like to. You don’t have to look any further than the midwives who went on strike for the first time in RCM history over a 1 per cent pay increase in line with their counterparts in the rest of the UK. They are the ones on the front line going above and beyond their duty, even working 2-3 hours per week unpaid and being called in on their days off. Or the ambulance staff working 14 hour shifts without meal breaks. It’s just ridiculous. I definitely agree with the writer that it is time something was done to protect and enhance the services in SWAH before it is too late. Trust management need to start listening to, and more importantly acting on, what service users and frontline staff are telling them. As Jill Weir from UNISON also wrote in the letters section, we need our politicians to demand more for the people of Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Yours faithfully, Concerned Service User