Consultants at Louth County Hospital in Dundalk yesterday took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement branding proposals by the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB) to remove surgical consultant care after 5 p.m. from July 1st as "totally unsafe in every respect".
The consultants' statement, which is signed by Dr Tom O'Callaghan, chairman of the medical board at the hospital, also said reports that the proposals had been previously reviewed or agreed by the medical board or any consultant at the Louth County Hospital were completely unfounded.
It has also emerged that the first the consultants knew of the change was when they heard it on the local radio station LMFM. The health board has said that under the restructuring six consultants will be based in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to provide on-call cover for surgical emergencies at both hospitals and an "appropriate" 24-hour on-call surgical service in Dundalk.
"This will include 24-hour on-call NCHD cover in Dundalk. Clear protocols will be established for the surgical triage of all surgical admissions to Dundalk and their subsequent management. Clear protocols are to be established for the initial management and transfer of major general, surgical, emergency cases to the Drogheda site," it said.
However the consultants said that under the proposals patients "would be assessed and managed by a junior doctor (in training) and transferred to the Lourdes hospital if required for acute surgical management and care".
Until now the medical board at the Dundalk hospital had understood that two posts for consultant surgeons had been approved by Comhairle na nOspidéal. The medical board and the two locum consultants did not have any "prior knowledge whatsoever of proposals that consultant surgical services would cease at 5 p.m. from July 1st".
"We consider these proposals to be totally unsafe in every respect. This proposed surgical-care model is completely without precedent, or approval, by any of the medical colleges, or the Department of Health, anywhere in Ireland."
The statement also alleges that the NEHB breached protocol in an application form to Comhairle na nOspidéal relating to proposals to provide consultant day cover only in Dundalk.
The NEHB yesterday said the consultants' statement "makes serious charges relating to the process of consultation and indeed the integrity of management of the Louth Meath Hospital Group. These are denied.
"There are significant inaccuracies in this statement regarding the proposed services to be provided at Louth County Hospital.
"The board will be issuing a detailed statement dealing with each of the key issues raised in the statement from the Louth County Hospital Medical Board."
There has been concern about the long-term future of the Dundalk hospital since its maternity unit closed nearly three years ago.