Plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to withdraw inpatient surgical services from Roscommon County Hospital have been abandoned, it was confirmed last night.
The executive said that "given the strength of public feeling" on the issue, it now hoped to retain inpatient surgery in Roscommon.
Its comments came in a statement following a meeting between the Roscommon Fianna Fáil TD, Michael Finneran, and Minister for Health Mary Harney, HSE staff and Department of Health officials.
After the meeting, Mr Finneran, who has opposed the plan for his local hospital from the beginning, said the plan had now been "scrapped".
Ms Harney, when asked at a function in Dublin last night if this was the case, said: "I think initially the HSE may have said some time in early August that there wasn't going to be any inpatient surgery in Roscommon and I understand the HSE have clarified that that is not the position.
"But that is not something I was involved in - it was purely an operation matter, a patient-safety matter for the HSE and not something for political interference and I certainly wasn't involved. But at the meeting today the HSE were in a position to inform Deputy Finneran of what the position was."
The HSE announced last month - following a review of services at both Roscommon hospital and Portiuncula hospital in Ballinasloe, some 53km away - that a joint surgery department would be created between the hospitals and all inpatient surgery would, in future, be carried out in Ballinasloe, leaving Roscommon to specialise in day case surgery.
The plan was greeted with outrage in Roscommon, where local people turned out in force at a public meeting to oppose the proposed change. Mr Finneran told the meeting he would not support the Government if the plan to withdraw services from Roscommon hospital was not reversed.
He threatened to run as an independent in the next election if the plan was not abandoned.
Last evening he said patients would not now have to be transferred from Roscommon to Ballinasloe for surgery, and that a number of further consultant appointments will be made in Roscommon.
"I am delighted, both for local people and for hard-working staff in Roscommon hospital, that the HSE's retrograde plan has been scrapped," the Fianna Fáil TD said.
In a short statement, the executive said: "We are continuing to work with staff in both Portiuncula and Roscommon hospitals to develop a plan for greater integration of services in surgery and anaesthesia, which will deliver the benefits of larger units while retaining full emergency services in Roscommon.
"We are hopeful that a solution can be found which will also retain inpatient surgery in Roscommon, given the strength of public feeling on this issue," it added.
Ms Harney said her understanding was that the health executive was "going to appoint a number of new consultants on a joint basis between the two hospitals.
"They are going to merge the surgical department between the two hospitals so they are going to operate effectively as one."
Mr Finneran claims he was also assured last week by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that the health executive's plan for Roscommon hospital would not proceed.