SWAH, funeral and Brexit: Friday morning's Northern Ireland headlines

WATCH: Katie Andrews had your Friday morning news headlines

SWAH:

The British Medical Association has called for urgent reform following the Western Trust's decision to temporarily suspend emergency surgery at the South West Acute Hospital. The Trust said it had been unable to maintain the workforce to deliver the service safely.

Protests against the move have been held outside the hospital following the decision. Dr Tom Black said the move will put more pressures on Northern Ireland's health service. "The service for patients in the South West of the country is now under huge pressure in both primary and secondary care and this closure of acute surgical services in the area will put additional pressures on the ambulance service there, not to mention on Altnagelvin Hospital in the North West. The continuing collapse of services that we are seeing play out in our hospitals and GP surgeries across Northern Ireland is due to repeated inadequate funding in the NHS over the last decade."

Funeral:

The funeral of historian Dr Éamon Phoenix is set to take place on Friday.

The academic died on November, 13 aged 69 after a short illness.

Dr Phoenix worked at Stranmillis University College, contributed to local newspapers and regularly contributed to a range of UTV programmes.

Brexit:

The implications of Brexit on the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic have the potential to destabilise communities and increase pressure on police, a former PSNI Chief Constable has said.

Sir Hugh Orde said he hoped that “political failures” around the consequences of leaving the EU were not used as an opportunity by people who wanted to return to violence.

Sir Hugh led the PSNI between 2002 and 2009, after the force replaced the RUC in 2001.

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