Staff shortages have forced the closure of a casualty department in the midlands on most weekday nights. The closure of the unit from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. from Monday to Thursday at St Joseph's Hospital, Longford, came into effect on Monday.
It follows the decision by two local GPs who provided night cover at the unit not to renew their contracts.
The Midland Health Board (MHB) said it had made every effort to secure the services of additional medical staff to maintain the full 24-hour service. "It has not been possible to attract the necessary medical staff," a spokeswoman, Ms Dymphna Bracken, said.
However, efforts would continue to secure medical staff, and it was hoped the nighttime closures would be temporary, she said.
Two other full-time GPs provide cover at the casualty unit during the day but could not cover every night. "A two-person rota for the delivery of casualty services on a 24-hour, five-day-week basis is not sustainable in the long term and is not fair to either patients or the doctors," Ms Bracken said.
"It is therefore necessary to reduce the midweek on-call hours for the casualty unit," she added.
Patients who now require casualty services after 9 p.m. during the week are advised by the health board to contact their own GP or call an ambulance.
The revised opening hours have provoked anger in the county. Ms Peggy Nolan, chairwoman of the Longford Health Services Action Committee, which has been campaigning for a district hospital for the county, said the health board was failing the area badly.
She urged the board to negotiate with the county's 18 GPs to work out a system of providing round-the-clock cover at the casualty unit.
Mr James Bannon, a local Fine Gael councillor and member of the MHB, said it was bitterly disappointing that executives of the health board had not informed board members of the impending closure in May, as they were aware at that stage that the two night-cover GPs would not be renewing their contracts.
"The people of Longford will not take this lying down," he warned.
The health board had now suggested the establishment of a GP co-op for the area, but he was not at all happy with this proposed solution. "We want additional doctors appointed to have stability in the service," he said.
Mr Bannon added that he would be proposing a vote of no confidence in the executives of the health board if they failed to recruit the necessary staff to reopen the unit round the clock seven days a week.