Junior doctors at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan have threatened to work under protest from January 1st unless the Health Service Executive agrees to increase staffing levels.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents the doctors, also claims services in the surgery department where the doctors work will have to be cut unless more junior doctors are taken on.
The row stems from the decision of the HSE not to have any interns in the hospital from the beginning of next year. There are five interns in the hospital's surgery unit at present.
The HSE North East Area said it planned to provide additional registrar and senior house officer posts instead of interns. There will be four registrars and four senior house officers in place from January. This will result in more experienced cover than currently provided by interns, it said. However, it also means there will be fewer junior doctors in the surgery unit next year.
In a letter in the past week to Chris Lyons, the manager of the north-east hospital network, the IMO's director of industrial relations, Fintan Hourihan, said the level of staffing that the HSE planned to put in place would seriously compromise the delivery of patient care.
"It is completely unacceptable that in light of the debacles at other acute hospitals in the north-east region the HSE is now completely disregarding accepted protocols, good industrial relations practice, requirements to consult medical staff prior to significant changes in medical staffing, the provisions of the Sustaining Progress agreement, normal communication and risk management protocols and is effectively downgrading the status of Our Lady's Hospital, Navan," he wrote.
"Furthermore I wish to reiterate that neither the medical board nor the consultant staff at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, were consulted prior to this unilateral decision being taken.
"In the absence of any ameliorating proposals, we must ask that the HSE advise on the services which will have to be cut back on the basis of the staffing being proposed," he added.
He also said the IMO was concerned at the ongoing viability of the department of surgery at the hospital in view of the HSE's proposals.
He also expressed the belief that accreditation for training junior doctors in the unit was likely to be withdrawn by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland when it inspects the unit in the new year.
"The IMO is making a final request for a review of its proposals by the HSE and is asking that safe and appropriate NCHD [non-consultant hospital doctor] staffing be agreed for the department of surgery with immediate effect. In the absence of agreement on staffing, the NCHDs at the hospital will be working under protest, and the IMO reserves its right to direct that work which would otherwise be undertaken by interns will not be undertaken by other NCHDs. The IMO will also review its position regarding the provision of emergency cover at nights and at weekends," he said.
The HSE North East Area said yesterday it had received the letter and would be having discussions with the IMO.