Monaghan General Hospital has been off call since July 2nd after concerns had been expressed to statutory agencies.
The hospital has since been unable to meet the requirements of the College of Anaesthetists and therefore it has not been approved as suitable for the training of junior hospital doctors and has not had any junior doctors in anaesthesia appointed to it.
This has left the hospital without 24-hour anaesthetic cover and although it is believed the problem is close to being resolved, patients have had procedures either cancelled or transferred to other hospitals in the board's area which do have anaesthetic cover.
Meanwhile the North Eastern Health Board has placed advertisements in the local newspapers in Co Monaghan in an effort to reassure the public that it has no intention of closing Monaghan General Hospital.
In the advertisements, it says that the Minister for Health, the health board and its chief executive officer "have all publicly confirmed their commitment to the continuation and development of Monaghan Hospital as an integral part of the Cavan-Monaghan hospital group".
The full-page advertisements also emphasise that the present problems in Monaghan General Hospital "relate to the conditions necessary to ensure that junior doctors can be employed in Cavan-Monaghan. It is essential that the requirements of the Medical Council and the Royal Colleges are satisfied before these posts are approved."
Along with the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk, Monaghan lost its maternity services last year and this has added to local concerns that there is no investment in the hospital and that it will ultimately be closed.
The health board says the Department of Health recently agreed to the appointment of a design team to prepare a development control plan for the hospital site.
In the board's policy document on the future of its five acute hospitals, Monaghan has been earmarked for a number of developments.
These include general medicine and surgery, a coronary care unit and out-patient services in gynaecology, obstetrics and paediatrics.