With the public consultation on the temporary suspension of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) now closed, the Western Trust has released summaries of the public events held; however, local health campaign group, Save Our Acute Services (SOAS), has raised concerns over what has been released.

On their website, the Trust released links to questions submitted at each event around the public consultation, with SOAS saying this is “tokenistic”. 

SOAS claimed that some of the points raised at some of the events were omitted, for example, the call from retired general surgeon Andrew McKibbin for the Trust to try harder in their recruitment efforts, or Fr. Brian D’Arcy, speaking at the first event in Enniskillen, claiming morale in the hospital was at an all-time low.

Then there is no mention of Mark Ovens – former Special Adviser to the then Health Minister, Robin Swann – who labelled the public consultation process as “shambolic”.

Mr. Ovens also claimed at the Belcoo event that Mr. Swann had raised concerns about the removal of emergency general surgery at the SWAH, and requested more information before he left office, but he did not receive one response from the Western Trust.

The summary of the consultation also states that Medical Director, Brendan Lavery was in attendance at the Belcoo event; however, this is incorrect.

The Belcoo event was attended by Teresa Molloy, Director of Performance and Service Improvement; Ronan O’Hare, Assistant Director (Medical); and Mark Gillespie, Interim Director of Planned Services (Acute).

In response to the Trust’s summary of consultation events, a SOAS spokesperson said: “We had concerns. We knew this was a tokenistic exercise and it was only made accessible to a limited range of people who had an online presence.

“Having spoken to members of the public throughout the process and since they [the Western trust] posted what they consider an accurate representation of questions and points made on the night, it only reinforces our concerns that this is not in any way co-production, and it’s far from open.

“If recommendations are made on the basis of this, then it just confirms how flawed the process is, in our opinion.”

There were seven public-facing events and two online events set up to accommodate just over 4,000 people, according to the Western Trust.

The Trust said a total of 632 people engaged with the Trust at these events and, as of March 28, 2023, the Trust had received over 50 responses to the consultation questionnaire.

The Trust said they also held three Staff Consultation Events and there has been ongoing staff engagement sessions for staff, and staff-side reps since November, 2022.

The outcome of the consultation will be considered at a Trust Board meeting this summer.