THE HEALTH Service Executive has confirmed the emergency department at Roscommon County Hospital will cease to function from Monday next.
This followed some confusion earlier yesterday when it was suggested the controversial move might be delayed for a month.
However, a HSE spokesman said last night: “The change in the operation of the emergency department in Roscommon goes ahead on Monday as planned.
“It will be replaced with an urgent-care centre which will be doctor-led and will be open from 8am to 8pm. Four weeks from Monday, from 8pm to 8am, there will be a GP out-of-hours service which will be provided from the hospital.
“During the coming four weeks, as an interim measure, a temporary service will be provided from 8pm to 8am by doctors in the hospital.
“The urgent-care centre won’t be dealing with complex cases – eg victims of a serious road traffic accident would be taken to the appropriate emergency department, whether in Sligo, Castlebar, Mullingar, Portiuncula or Galway, depending on where the accident or emergency would have taken place,” the spokesman said.
Speaking on RTE’s Prime Time last night Minister for Health Dr James Reilly said talks were continuing with local GPs about the provision of the out-of-hours service.
Earlier, Fine Gael TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim Frank Feighan said that, although the emergency department service was being withdrawn, “we have got it up and running for another month. There is a window of opportunity, but there will be a special care unit, but I believe that what will be in place will be suitable.”
There was also some initial confusion over the political fate of his constituency colleague, Deputy Denis Naughten who, unlike Mr Feighan, voted with a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to live up to its election commitments and retain emergency services at Roscommon. It was at first expected the removal of the whip from Mr Naughten would have to await a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party next week.
This would have meant Mr Naughten was entitled to vote at the convention to select a party presidential candidate tomorrow. However, shortly before 4pm, Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe announced the TD was no longer a member of the parliamentary party.
“Following a meeting with Deputy Denis Naughten, the Fine Gael whip has been automatically removed from him as a result of his failure to support the Government in a Dáil vote last night , in accordance with the Fine Gael constitution and rules,” Mr Kehoe said.
Rule 45 of the Fine Gael constitution and rules states: “Where any member of the parliamentary party is in breach of the code of conduct or their party pledge . . . he or she shall automatically lose the party whip.” The party pledge requires TDs who are members of the parliamentary party “to abide by all majority decisions”.
Mr Naughton is also expected to lose his position as chairman of the Oireachtas health committee.
Taoiseach and party leader Enda Kenny said: “I’m obviously disappointed to lose any member, I can fully understand the concerns and anxieties of any deputy but Fine Gael have a big responsibility here as a party of government in attempting to deal with the challenges that the country faces.”
Mr Kenny added: “Obviously the decisions that must be made over the next 15-18 months are going to be challenging, will not be popular and will affect people genuinely, but we have to do this to sort out our country’s problems.”
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher condemned the Minister for Health’s handling of the AE crisis. “Some weeks back, Minister James Reilly made great headlines when he announced that he was firing the expert board of the HSE and taking personal control of the organisation. This latest chaos and confusion about the future of Roscommon hospital sends a very worrying signal about what this personal leadership is going to look like.”