It has been claimed that senior management of the Western Trust approached the party leadership of the councillor who first broke the news of the emergency surgical suspension at the South West Acute Hospital.
The claim came during a specially-convened meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to hear from the campaign group, Save Our Acute Services.
During a Council meeting last October, SDLP Councillor Paul Blake informed members an announcement was pending on the withdrawal of emergency surgical services from the SWAH.
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Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Blake said: “This is the single biggest existential threat to the SWAH. Nothing as big as this has ever threatened to this level before.
“The community must and will fight back to retain our critical services.”
His comments would be played down, but at a meeting around a fortnight later when it appeared the remarks were largely accurate, he said: “I have been proved correct. I wasn’t scaremongering or seeking publicity … After two weeks scrambling and trying to deny what we said, I want to know how much the Minister [for Health] was aware of this.
“There also needs to be stern words with the Western Trust Chief Executive. I’ve no confidence over the complete lack of will to deliver for this area.”
At the most recent meeting, Councillor Blake described the SOAS presentations as very informative, and claimed they had “corrected a lot of the wrongs and misinformation that the Western Trust had spread”.
Continuing, he claimed: “They used the platform of their mismanaged consultation – and that’s exactly what it was. If that’s how they manage a consultation, it doesn’t say much about how they run a hospital. They used it as an opportunity to spread their narrative.”
