An Ulster Unionist councillor has criticised remarks expressed around a consultation exercise which included emergency surgery provision at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), warning: “Negativity breeds negativity.”

Last month, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council requested the Minister for Health, Robin Swann, arrange in-person public meetings around the forthcoming Review of Urgent and Emergency Care Services in Northern Ireland.

His reply came before the recent Policy and Resources Committee, and stated the public consultation closed on July 1, and Departmental officials held three online public events, which were attended by 170 people.

The public was encouraged to submit written responses or to use a dedicated phone line to register views.

“As a next step, my officials will now analyse and consider the responses,” said Minister Swann.

He pointed to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, and with the recent increase in coronavirus infections, said: “The Department took the decision not to hold in-person public meetings.

“The online consultation events, in addition to written responses and the dedicated phone line, provided ample opportunity for the public and key stakeholders to make their views known.”

However, Independent Councillor Donal O’Cofaigh branded the response “shameful”.

He said: “We are looking at the rising likelihood of losing our emergency surgery services, which will effectively undermine the entire provision of acute provision at SWAH.

“The idea that there wasn’t even public consultations around the framework of the decisions is shameful.

“This was pushed at a time when public consultation wasn’t available, which shows the rush to take these actions.”

Noting the consultation closure date, Councillor O’Cofaigh said: “The day before – June 30 – the Minister unilaterally announced and published a review into the location of general surgery.

“That is already pre-judged by the removal of emergency surgery at SWAH.

“We are undoubtedly looking at the immediate prospect of having a hospital which does not have emergency surgery.

“That’s already happened at Daisy Hill, in Newry, and now we are going to see this in Enniskillen,” claimed Councillor O’Cofaigh.

He continued: “If that is the case, there will not be emergency surgery anywhere west of Craigavon [Area Hospital] and south of Altnagelvin [Hospital] in Northern Ireland.

Councillor O’Cofaigh further claimed: “You’ll have to drive a long way, even over the Border, to access emergency surgery.

“This is as bad as it gets. The consequences of removing this are obvious.”

He stressed the need for the Council to look at the review of general surgery and the framework: “Which clearly will allow services in the likes of SWAH to be closed, on the grounds of driving over two hours for surgery will have a better outcome.

“This is all being driven by rationalisation, privatisation, cutbacks and the Bengoa agenda. The response is shameful and we as a community need to stand up and defend ourselves, because we are going to die on the roadside if this goes through.”

Director of Corporate Services and Governance, Celine McCarten, told members the consultation response provided on behalf of the Council “addressed all issues raised including travel time, rural inequalities and various other points around staffing”.

She continued: “We have fully participated, regardless of the fact there wasn’t a face-to-face approach.”

Ulster Unionist Councillor Victor Warrington criticised Councillor O’Cofaigh’s comments for being: “All so negative. “

He said: “We have spoken of negativity about SWAH on numerous occasions. Negativity unfortunately breeds negativity, and it gets out to the Press and everywhere else.

“Councillor O’Cofaigh basically has SWAH closed, if we listen to him, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Yes, there’s ongoing consultation that we’re all involved in. Let’s try to look at some positives.

“We spoke of the difficulty in getting doctors and nurses to SWAH, and part of that is because of the negativity out there.

“All Councillor O’Cofaigh is doing is contributing to that negativity.”

He concluded: “We want to sound positive. We have a fantastic building, so let’s be positive, going forward.”