Marie-Louise Connolly
BBC News NI health correspondent

No-one likes change, especially if it affects the health service in their area.

But according to Raphael Bengoa - and several other experts who've published health service reviews - change is necessary if Northern Ireland's health system is to be sustainable.

People in Enniskillen say they are the latest "casualties" in plans to change how services are delivered across the region.

The Western Health Trust argues that change is needed as the service is no longer safe.

Whatever the argument, local people say it feels like this is being thrust on them as a last resort.

They tell me what should have taken place was much-needed dialogue, explanation and local people being properly informed about how the proposed changes would affect them.

Instead, they say, a vacuum was created which encouraged rumour and misinformation that the South West Acute Hospital was set to remove all of its emergency services.

While making any sort of change to the Northern Ireland health and social care system can be politicised and emotive, not having those conversations in advance can often be even more problematic.

County Fermanagh-born actor Adrian Dunbar is urging politicians and health officials to reconsider what he describes as a "potentially disastrous decision for many people".

In a video released by the Save Our Acute Services, external campaign group, the Line of Duty star says the South West Acute Hospital is being "robbed of its emergency surgery services".

"The idea that someone has come up with is that those people requiring emergency surgery are put in an ambulance and sent to a hospital in Derry or Craigavon, well over an hour away, never mind the traffic.

"This seems to me like a very retrograde step for health services in the Fermanagh and Tyrone area and surrounding counties.

"I would implore everybody involved... to reconsider this potentially disastrous decision for many people in my home town of Enniskillen and in the Fermanagh and Tyrone area."

Retired consultant cardiologist Prof Mahendra Varma was involved in the establishment of the South West Acute Hospital.

He says the Western Health Trust's use of the word "temporary" to describe the suspension of emergency general surgery service is "euphemistic".

"In my 40 years in the health service, once the word 'temporary' is used then therefore it becomes permanent so I don’t accept what the Western Trust has said," he says.

"This concept that there is not going to be enough work for the surgeons - could I just point out there were five surgeons working in the hospital when I was there and all the work was being done?

"That includes the acute gall bladders, the appendix, etc."

Staff shortages at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) have caused the temporary suspension of emergency general surgery, says the Western Health Trust.

The resignation of a consultant in the general surgery team means the hospital is not in a position to offer the service, according to the trust's acute services director Geraldine McKay.

"Despite our previous and ongoing efforts to recruit we have not been successful to date in securing the necessary consultant workforce," she says.

"The trust is therefore now unable to maintain the required workforce to sustain and deliver a safe emergency general surgical service to our population from SWAH."

Sunday 18 December is the date on which emergency general surgery will be withdrawn from the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), says the Western Health Trust.

The trust says it won't be able to fill a rota for staff to carry out emergency surgeries from then on.

Planned surgeries for non-emergency cases will still go ahead at the hospital.

The South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, opened in 2012 and is run by the Western Health Trust.

It took over services that were formerly available at the Erne Hospital and it has up to 210 inpatient beds and 22 day-case beds.

It offers services including critical and emergency care, maternity services and outpatient clinics.

It's based near Wolfe Lough, just north of Enniskillen, and is the only hospital in Fermanagh.

Emergency general surgery is to be temporarily withdrawn from the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen, says the Western Health Trust.

The trust says the move is necessary to protect the public's safety.

Despite saying the move was temporary, the trust is not saying when it expects emergency general surgery will resume.

The emergency department and other services, including obstetrics, will continue as normal.

Other - mostly lower-grade - surgeons will remain on site.

Read more: Emergency general surgery withdrawn from SWAH