The failure of Cavan General Hospital to recruit a permanent A&E consultant has resulted in the hospital's A&E unit losing accreditation for the training of junior doctors.
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has written to the hospital stating that it is withdrawing accreditation from July 1st.
The move, a blow to an A&E unit regularly having to deal with numerous patients on trolleys, will not, however, result in services being scaled back, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said.
It said it would be recruiting junior doctors who were fully registered with the Medical Council to replace junior doctors currently in training at the unit. A number of suitable applicants had already been found and the hospital re-advertised for a number of others last weekend, a spokeswoman said.
While the hospital does not have a permanent A&E consultant, it has a locum A&E consultant who also has sessional commitments at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and Monaghan General Hospital. When this consultant is not in Cavan, the A&E unit is covered by junior doctors and, at times, by other consultants in the hospital. The HSE pointed out that it had made attempts to recruit a permanent A&E consultant for Cavan.
"An A&E consultant was due to commence work in August 2006 but informed us at the beginning of April that he was withdrawing from the post," its spokeswoman said.
A previous attempt to recruit somebody also failed.
The HSE said it had been in contact with the Public Appointments Commission to recruit another candidate.
"The RCSI accredits A&E posts based on, largely, the number of attenders to the A&E department but also on the training and learning environment and consultant supervision. The RCSI is withdrawing accreditation from 1st July as there is not a permanent A&E consultant in Cavan at present," said the HSE in a statement.
The hospital's A&E unit dealt with 20,019 attendances last year.
There are fears locally that the predicament faced by the A&E unit at Cavan could result in staff being transferred to the hospital from Monaghan General, which has an emergency treatment room open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with two locum consultants and a number of junior doctors but deals with fewer attendances.
However, no change is expected before a review of acute hospital services in the northeast is completed. It is due to be completed shortly.
The HSE in its statement stressed: "There is no change to the Treatment Room arrangements in Monaghan".
In late 2004, the RCSI warned management at Cavan General Hospital the future of its A&E unit was in doubt unless it was able to recruit at least three accident and emergency consultants.