Health chiefs urged to seek help from disaster zone doctors

Local councillors have called for serious consideration to be given to the possibility of seeking assistance from the Henry Reeve Brigade to aid with significant staffing pressures and to meet regulatory standards at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) amid the deepening crisis in the North’s health service.

Established by the late Fidel Castro in September 2005, the Henry Reeve Brigade is a Cuban-based group of medical professionals with the mission of international medical solidarity, deployed worldwide in major health crises.

Since then, groups from the Brigade have carried out humanitarian missions in 22 countries, with almost 8,000 medical professionals fighting the effects of 16 floods, eight hurricanes, eight earthquakes and four epidemics, including three teams that faced the West African Ebola virus epidemic.

At the latest Fermanagh and Omagh District Council meeting last Tuesday, a response from the Department of Health, in relation to the council’s concerns regarding the staffing shortages, confirmed that they would not be seeking assistance from the Henry Reeve Brigade at this time.

Peter May, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health, stated, “I can confirm the Department has not considered seeking assistance from the Henry Reeve Brigade from Cuba and have no plans to do so currently.”

But the response prompted several councillors to ask why – and, furthermore, to propose that the help of the Henry Reeve Brigade should be encouraged by FODC.

Independent councillor Eamon Keenan proposed that Mr May pay serious attention to this course of action.

“I would encourage Mr May to consider this seriously, and I propose he should do so,” said Cllr Keenan, who was seconded by fellow independent, Emmet McAleer. “Anything we can be doing to improve and reinstate these services, we have to be doing them,” said Cllr McAleer.

However, some councillors opposed the idea, labelling it as ‘off the wall’ and simply short-term emergency intervention – proposing that clarification is sought on whether this is a crisis that the Henry Reeve Brigade would actually respond to.

“My understanding of the organisation is they go to emergency situations,” said Cllr Sheamus Greene. “I presume we would look quite foolish asking them to come to a place like this.”