A public consultation into the removal of emergency surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen must now be scrapped, according to the SDLP Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Group Leader, Councillor Adam Gannon.

The calls were made by the party after the consultation, led by the Western Trust, was requested to be paused by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt. Councillor Gannon explained: "It is clear that the swell of public opinion and the work of local campaigners around this consultation has led directly to this intervention from the Health Minister. The Western Trust must now recognise that it is unable to proceed. That the trust were struggling to find a venue big enough to host a public meeting on this issue shows how passionately people feel about the removal of these services from their hospital."

The SDLP councillor also stated that while it is "regrettable" that the Minister "failed to engage properly with this community earlier", he welcomes that Mr Nesbitt has "now recognised that things cannot continue in this manner."

Councillor Gannon continued: "This is an opportunity to take a breath, look at this issue again and examine how we can make changes without the withdrawal of emergency general surgery from the SWAH.

"The SDLP has been clear that we want to see the reform needed to address the crisis within our health service, but that cannot be solely at the expense of rural communities who have repeatedly seen services stripped away. We need to see concrete proposals around the position of the SWAH in the future of our health service and ending this consultation can be the first step."