Campaigners fighting the proposed closure of the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen say they are determined to keep up the campaign irrespective of a court ruling on the issue expected shortly.
A judicial review was heard in the courts in Belfast in January after Fermanagh District Council challenged a recommendation to the minister by the Western Health and Social Services Board.
The board recommended closing both the Erne Hospital and the Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh and replacing them with one new hospital on a greenfield site.
The council, backed by many locals, is arguing that the WHSSB did not fully consider all the available options.
Whatever the outcome of the court action, with the suspension of the Assembly, any final ministerial decision on the matter may now be postponed for some time.
The board made the recommendation after undertaking a review of acute services in the whole western area. It says its objective is "to secure high-uality, sustainable acute services beyond the next 10 years".
It is basing its future plans on having two large hospitals in the area, Altnagelvin in Derry and a new hospital to be located somewhere in the south-west quarter of Northern Ireland.
Mr Steven McBride, the chairman of Fermanagh Agai nst the Closure of the Erne (FACE) said the closure of the hospital would put lives at risk.
The people worst affected would be those living along the Border areas such as Belleek and Roslea, who already have up to a 40-minute journey to get to the Erne Hospital. He argues that to add further to that distance would be dangerous.
A spokesman for the WHSSB said he believed the people of Fermanagh generally understood that they have to travel further for specialist services.
He said that in terms of emergencies the critical issue was not the distance people had to travel to get to a hospital but the quality of the initial response, which would be provided by a modern ambulance service.
FACE's campaign has attracted strong public support and is also backed by all the local politicians. A petition demanding that the Erne Hospital be kept open was signed by 20,000 people and a campaign is also being run in Omagh, 28 miles away, to keep the Tyrone County Hospital open.
People are angry that while the new hospital is expected to cost about £80 million, the WHSSB has not specified a location. It is accepted, however, that it would be some eight years before the hospital would be ready for use.
Mr McBride said that without deciding on a site he believed it was impossible to put an accurate figure on the cost or say it was a better option than keeping the two existing hospitals open.
Campaigners believe that the decision in based on recommendations from the Royal Colleges of Physicians in the UK in favour of larger hospitals where a full range of specialists is available.
The through-put of the Erne and the Tyrone County, it is argued, is not sufficient to make either hospital viable to offer a full range of specialist services.
According to FACE this is an attempt to impose an urban solution on a rural area. "That might work in London or Birmingham but it does not work in rural areas like Fermanagh and Tyrone," said Mr McBride.
He said it was hoped with the devolved administration that a local minister might better understand the needs of a rural area.
The Assembly was suspended before FACE was due to have its first meeting with health minister, Ms Bairbre de Brun.
Campaigners say that the proposals will lead to services west of the Bann being inferior to those in the eastern region.
A FACE spokesman, Mr Raymond Farrell, said important factors were not being taken into account, that 75 per cent of people in Fermanagh lived in rural areas and that car ownership levels were low.
He said closure would be a devastating blow to the local economy, as it could mean the loss of up to £36 million annually.
"Our primary concern is that patients do not suffer, and that the quality of services available east of the Bann is also available here. People increasingly feel alienated and left out when decisions are being made," Mr Farrell, a staff nurse, said.
FACE also points out that because Fermanagh is one of the prime tourist areas in the North, the service is needed for visitors. During the summer months, tourists account for 25 per cent of admissions to the accident and emergency department at the Erne Hospital.
A decision in recent weeks by the state pathologist that autopsies on behalf of the coroner will no longer be carried out at the Erne, but at Omagh, has added fuel to FACE's campaign.
Mr McBride said people in Fermanagh did not want to get dragged into a situation where they were competing with Omagh for one hospital. "Neither community wants a hospital at the expense of the other," he said.