Two well-known local actors are among those who have added their voices to the Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) campaign.

‘Line of Duty’ star Adrian Dunbar and ‘Hope Street’ star Ciarán McMenamin released videos in support of the campaign.

The two Fermanagh-born actors both firmly put their backing behind the SOAS campaign.

Speaking in a video shared with local Press by the SOAS committee, Adrian said: “It’s been brought to my attention that the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) is to be robbed of its emergency surgery services, and the idea that someone has come up with is that those people requiring emergency surgery are put in an ambulance and sent to a hospital in Derry or Craigavon – well over an hour away, never mind the traffic.”

He urged for a reconsideration of such plans from those in power, saying: “This seems to me like a very retrograde step for health services in the Fermanagh and Tyrone area and surrounding counties and I would implore everybody involved – including those in government and within the civil service, as we have no Northern Ireland Executive at the minute – to reconsider this potentially disastrous decision for many people in my home town of Enniskillen and in the Fermanagh and Tyrone area,” he said.

Support

Also adding support was Ciarán McMenamin who said: “These are life and death decisions that are being taken on our behalf and I know they are not being taken lightly.

“I understand that; I also understand that the NHS – wonderful organisation and boon to all of our lives it has been – is in a lot of trouble, we all know that.”

Taking aim at political inaction, Ciarán said: “Yes, in Northern Ireland, our politicians are national – wait, let’s upgrade that – an international embarrassment, and there isn’t actually a current government or Executive sitting to even approach.”

He continued: “People are going to die on their own in the back of ambulances [...] Do you want your father in the back of an ambulance for an hour and a half maybe stuck behind a tractor in Fivemiletown desperate to get to Craigavon with a head injury? No.

“Do you want your daughter stuck on Scraghy Mountain in the back of an ambulance with something as straightforward as a burst appendix? No, didn’t think so either.

“Or your son with a head injury after a rugby match at school, not being able to get care within the first hour, and something run-of-the-mill turning into something that might ruin the rest of their lives? It’s just not on, guys,” he said.

He concluded by saying: “Let’s make our voices heard, and let’s look after ourselves.”