The HSE has signalled it intends to go ahead with a planned reconfiguration of Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan despite a pause and review ordered by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
The plan to convert the emergency department to a medical assessment unit has caused political controversy as well as prompting concern from senior medics. On June 21st, Mr Donnelly revealed that he told the HSE to pause the closure and then earlier this month he announced a review of the services.
However senior HSE officials, who noted the possibility of the Minister’s review, agreed at a meeting on June 29th that the reconfiguration would go ahead in September.
The meeting of the HSE board heard that there were “significant and serious patient safety concerns”. Minutes of the meeting, seen by The Irish Times, show that HSE CEO Paul Reid informed the board that it was likely that the Minister would seek a review of services. The board then reaffirmed previous decisions to press ahead with the plans.
“Following the discussion, the board confirmed its decision to proceed with the planned reconfiguration of Our Lady’s Hospital Navan given the significant and serious patient safety concerns. It was reaffirmed that the planned reconfiguration of services would proceed in September 2022.”
The meeting heard that any correspondence from the Minister on the matter “would be considered if received.”
Opposition politicians have criticised the terms of the review of Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, contending the Government is “hell-bent” on closing services.
The terms of reference were circulated earlier in August, prompting backlash from Sinn Féin, Aontú and campaigners, who say that a reconfiguration at the hospital is hard-wired into the review. At an earlier meeting of the HSE board in May, officials “expressed disquiet that four previous meetings to engage with local representatives have been cancelled” at one stage in the process.
Series of concerns
The original plan was to convert the emergency department to a 24-hour medical assessment unit where patients would have to be referred by a GP, and critically ill patients would be transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
Mr Donnelly highlighted a series of concerns over the plans and subsequently instructed the HSE not to proceed with the reconfiguration of the ED, which was originally to happen at the end of June.
Senior clinicians in Drogheda also raised concern about the capacity there for the diverted patients.
It comes as the Save Navan Hospital Campaign met on Tuesday night in Meath to discuss the next steps in their campaign to halt the closure.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who is also the head of the campaign, said the group will “seek to deliver 15,000 petition names to the Minister for Health this Friday to demand the protection of and investment in Navan A&E into the future. We will seek legal advice into the potential for an injunction to be taken against closure of our A&E”.
“The atmosphere at the meeting was defiant. The people of Meath are up for the battle to save the most important health infrastructure in the county. Each of the 220,000 people who live in Meath will need it at some stage of their lives. The context of this is A&E capacity is already hammered with the worst wait times in history and with the Mater and Cavan Hospitals just in the last week telling patients not present to their A&Es. This is a matter of life and death and we will not accept closure”.
There is significant political pressure around the plans, especially given the hospital is in the constituency of the Fine Gael Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, who has in recent weeks said that serious questions around capacity had not been addressed.
“Any proposals which would mean people in Meath having to attend emergency services outside the county which would not be adequately resourced to meet increased demand are unacceptable,” she said in July. She has spoken to numerous local media outlets in her constituency outlining questions and concerns that she has raised around capacity.
