Campaigners are calling for an unequivocal commitment that emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital in County Fermanagh will be reinstated. It was temporarily suspended last December due to staff shortages. The group has published a five-point plan recommending a separate trust for the southwest and initiatives to attract and keep staff. The Western Trust says it is actively recruiting.

I think the Department of Health needs to listen to the five points there, and I think the fact that the trust is throwing its hands in the air and saying to the public, “Here is your consultation, here’s five questions, we don’t know how to do it, can you come and tell us if you have ideas?” We’ve answered that and we’ve answered it having worked with all five political parties collectively, and we were told, “Make a solution, make a solution, and we have”