Minister outlines hospitals plan

Campaigners are fighting for the retention of acute services

The Northern Ireland health minister has said that Enniskillen would not be getting a "conventional acute hospital".

Shaun Woodward was answering concerns from councillors in Fermanagh and Tyrone about downgraded services.

Sinn Fein MPs Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty warned that the changes could put lives in jeopardy.

It's understood that patients may have to travel for emergency surgery and there won't be any intensive care.

In March, Sperrin Lakeland Trust revealed plans for a £175m Enniskillen hospital and a £90m facility in Omagh.

On Wednesday, the minister said people would have access to acute services and there would be new hospitals in both towns.

"There won't be conventional acute hospitals at Omagh and Enniskillen," he told BBC Northern Ireland's Good Morning Ulster.

Mr Woodward said some acute services would be provided - an accident and emergency service at Enniskillen and minor injuries unit at Omagh.

The proposed site for the £175m hospital in Enniskillen

But he pointed out that consultation on this was ongoing and final decisions had not been made.

The Sinn Fein MPs for West Tyrone and Fermanagh/South Tyrone, where the hospitals are located, said any loss of essential hospital services could be life threatening.

"We need a clear and unambiguous statement from the Department of Health on the range and nature of services situated west of the Bann, " said Pat Doherty and Michelle Gildernew.

"Any U-turn on previous commitments, indeed, any failure to address concerns about the loss of essential hospital services in Tyrone and Fermanagh, will be life threatening and could result in unnecessary loss of life."

BBC NI's health correspondent Dot Kirby said what the minister was saying appeared to represent a change of policy.

"What he is thinking now in Fermanagh is something along the lines of Downpatrick, where it won't be an acute hospital.

"Where it will have, say, a maternity unit run by midwives rather than obstetricians, which is the case at the moment, it will have coronary care and it will have a 24-hour accident and emergency unit.

"It will have the ability to stabilise somebody and move them on for help.

"But it won't have emergency surgery, it will lose its intensive care, it would not be counted as an acute hospital."

Concern

Democratic Unionist assembly member Arlene Foster, who represents Fermanagh and South Tyrone, said: "There is a lot of concern at these reports about Enniskillen not getting the full range of acute services as promised.

"We will be expecting straightforward answers to our questions."

Frank Britton, an SDLP councillor in Fermanagh, said the council would be seeking further clarification on the minister's remarks.

"I would be very, very, very worried if the minister was hinting at some other proposal or some other set of proposals that would in any way downgrade the acute services in County Fermanagh," he said.

In March, plans for two new hospitals in Fermanagh and Tyrone were approved.

The trust announced that the proposed site for the £175m hospital would be at Drumcoo, just off the main road from Enniskillen to Irvinestown.

Both hospitals are to be opened by 2010.