CONSULTANTS AT Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan have said there is no major emergency plan in place and that arrangements at the emergency department are “unsafe for patient care”.
The consultant medical boards of the Navan hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda met on Monday night to discuss their concerns over the HSE’s decision to end acute and emergency surgery at Navan.
The HSE ended such procedures from last Wednesday, saying it took the decision on the basis of expert external clinical advice. It said due to the volume and complexity of the surgical activity at Navan it was “no longer tenable” to perform acute and emergency surgeries, and that these should be moved to alternative sites.
Local GPs and hospital staff questioned why elective surgeries at Navan hospital had also been cancelled. They insist it is perfectly safe and appropriate to carry out such procedures there.
Dr Niall Maguire, secretary of the Meath faculty of the Irish College of General Practitioners, said the three surgeons at Navan had in effect been suspended from assessing patients at the accident and emergency department.
Following Monday’s meeting, the consultant medical board of Navan hospital said its members “unanimously” felt the arrangements at the AE department to be “unsafe for patient care”.
Emergency department consultants had also communicated their concern that the department was unsafe and they had “the full support of the board”.
The consultant medical board at Drogheda also met on Monday to discuss the impact on its own services of the decision to cease certain procedures at Navan.
“The immediate concern of the board was the manner in which these developments in relation to Navan surgery took place and the immediate and serious fallout for patient safety in AE and the effects on other services,” the board said.
Both boards are expected to write to the clinical director of the Louth-Meath Hospital Group, Dr Doiminic Ó Brannagáin, this week and ask for a meeting.
Unions at the hospital have asked to see the external advice cited by the HSE as the reason for the cessation of emergency and acute surgeries. They are due to meet management again tomorrow. A spokeswoman for the HSE said all the implications of the decision were being examined.