Disagreement between Donnelly and HSE over plans to close Navan emergency department
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A disagreement has broken out between Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the HSE over plans to close the emergency department at Navan hospital.
On Monday, senior HSE and hospital officials held a media briefing during which they confirmed that the emergency department is to be replaced by a 24-hour medical assessment unit.
These units can only accept patients referred by a GP, meaning emergency care is not available. In other hospitals, like Ennis in Co Clare, these units are only open for 12 hours.
On Tuesday, however, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly disputed this.
He said: “No decision regarding the HSE’s proposal for the transition of the Emergency Department at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan has been agreed by this government.”
He said he had asked the HSE to outline their clinical concerns around safety at the ED in Navan to local politicians on Monday.
“I have heard clearly the concerns of clinicians in Navan as to the ongoing safety concerns of operating a small Emergency Department,” he said.
“I have also heard the concerns of clinicians at other hospitals that would be impacted at a time when all health services are under such pressure.”
The minister said “several important issues”, including increasing capacity in nearby hospitals as well as giving the Navan area access to emergency care, are still being addressed.
He said these issues “would need to be fully addressed before any proposed transition by the HSE takes place”.
During the media briefing on Monday, HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said the move to an MAU is not a downgrading.
The briefing also heard from an Ireland East Hospital Group representative. They said, “In Our Lady’s Hospital Navan there is a low critical mass of severely ill patients, highlighted by the intensive care unit problem, and there is a direct correlation between low numbers of critically ill patients and poor outcomes.”
These officials acknowledged the Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda will see an increase in emergency patients and projected 2,100 ambulance transfers per year from Navan.
They projected up to 56 additional admissions every week and said extra beds and theatre space have been put in.
The briefing also heard emergency department consultants have safety concerns about running small EDs.
The dispute echoes that across the mid-West in Munster where patient advocates have long argued that EDs in hospitals like Ennis and Nenagh were closed without any appropriate increasing of capacity at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
UHL is consistently one of the most overcrowded hospitals in Ireland with senior management publicly calling for an elective hospital to be built in the area to help them.
Ennis, Nenagh, and St Johns in Limerick offer MAU services but emergencies are all funnelled to UHL.