A DECISION has been made to site the new regional hospital planned for the northeast in Navan, Co Meath, it emerged yesterday.
Fine Gael TD for Louth Fergus O'Dowd said he had been reliably informed that the hospital would be sited in Navan.
However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said last evening it had yet to receive a report from outside consultants on where the hospital should be located.
A decision to locate the hospital in Navan is likely to cause uproar in other parts of the region which had been hoping their areas would be chosen for the facility.
Mr O'Dowd said he was disappointed at the decision. "I am deeply saddened by the news that the new northeastern hospital will not be located in Drogheda but in Co Meath, at Navan," he said.
"Drogheda will have a population of 90,000 people in the near future, it has rail links, motorway links, it is beside the airport and is at the centre of the growth of population.
"The people of Drogheda and those in the surrounding county, as well as in east Meath, will absolutely resist the removal of the centre of excellence at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. That hospital has been run down by the HSE," he added.
The HSE selected outside consultants last year to recommend the best site options for the new hospital. In a statement last evening the HSE said it was due to receive the report from these consultants before the end of this week. "The HSE is due to receive the report of The Health Partnership at the end of the week.
"Health Partnership are the firm of management consultants appointed by the HSE to carry out the location study for the new regional hospital in the northeast. The report is due to go to the HSE board next week," it said.
It added that any comment on the proposed location of the new hospital at this time was therefore "premature".
The decision to build a new hospital in the northeast region, which already has five hospitals - in Navan, Cavan, Monaghan, Dundalk and Drogheda - was made by the HSE in June 2006.
This followed the publication of an independent review of acute hospital services in the region which found that patients were being put at risk by the way services are currently organised.
A new hospital for the northeast was also recommended by the Lourdes hospital inquiry report when it was published in February 2006.
It is envisaged that the new hospital will provide A&E services, paediatrics and possibly maternity services for the entire region.