Women of Fermanagh including mothers, grandmothers and future mothers are coming together to campaign against the potential cuts to vital emergency surgery and consequently vital maternity services in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen.

LAMP (Letterbreen and Mullaghdun Partnership) launched MAGS NI (Mothers and Grandmothers Speak NI) at a community event held at the Church of Ireland Hall in Letterbreen on Thursday, November 17.

Films of how the SWAH has helped women and babies survive were shown and these stories, and more stories like them, will form the basis for the media campaign that is being rolled out seeking to draw international attention to the situation.

Speaking at the launch, Dianne Little said: “It is our intention through LAMP and MAGS NI to ensure the stories of mothers who need SWAH in an emergency are heard across the world.

“We need women of Fermanagh, NI and across the world to object to what is being proposed for women here, and get active now to protect our emergency surgery and maternity services by joining the campaign, using [the] #MAGSNI [tag on their social media platforms].

“It’s an incredible situation that a newborn baby or a mother in labour could be lost here because of mismanagement, [or a] failure to consider impacts of plans or risk-assess ideas.

“We are simply far too isolated for such failures to be allowed. An independent external review is urgently needed.

“Meanwhile, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, must halt the closure of wards and recruitment of four surgeons to run emergency surgery two hours away [if people are sent to Altnagelvin Hospital or elsewhere].

“Women in Fermanagh already have an 81 per cent below-average access to health care. The current wish list of surgeons, which excluded any criteria for access to emergency surgery, adds insult to injury.

“We need equity in health care, not all the suffering, risks, trauma and expense heaped on one community,” she added.

Diane outlined how obstetric and gynaecological consultants in the SWAH have said that, should services be taken away from the SWAH as feared, “harm will come to patients”.

She said the plan to remove emergency surgery from the SWAH will have “catastrophic effect”, making it “unsafe for patients” and is “simply not practical or fair”, adding that facing hours of transfer to other hospitals “could increase women’s morbidity/mortality rates and risk to their babies”.

Continuing, she said: “They are moving to close surgical wards on December 3, ending vital emergency surgery needed by mothers and babies, car and farm accident victims, and many other time-critical emergencies.

“The idea that we must bypass a 10-year-old, state-of-the-art £712m hospital built and funded with public funds to meet our access needs, and either head to Altnagelvin or Sligo Hospital, is just ridiculous!

“As lives will be at risk due to multiple failures, reckless decisions and actions and no government, we have launched an emergency appeal for help and support for women in Fermanagh.

“We want mothers to mobilise; share the film, ‘Frightened in Fermanagh’; help the Fermanagh women be heard using the hashtag #MAGSNI; make more videos in response, using the same hashtag; [and] to retain SWAH’s emergency surgical services and maternity provision in SWAH.”

Details of how people can support the campaign, including a sample letter of support, can be found on the website magsni.wordpress.com, and people can follow the campaign on Facebook via the MAGS NI page.