A NEW and larger emergency unit opened at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, yesterday.
The emergency department had been ready for some time but the HSE was unable to open it until sufficient staff had been recruited to man the service.
The opening of the unit at this time, despite the recruitment embargo in the public service, is part of a contingency plan drawn up in Louth-Meath to cope with a shortage of junior doctors in the region.
There were about 294 vacancies for junior doctors at hospitals around the country at the beginning of this month. That situation may worsen on July 1st when junior doctors change jobs – they rotate jobs every six months. The northeast is understood to be worst affected by the junior doctor shortage.
Emergency care for Louth- Meath will shortly be centralised at the Drogheda hospital as will acute medical and critical care services for the region. These services will be moving to Drogheda from Dundalk hospital.
A minor injury unit, open 12 hours a day, will be put in place in Dundalk in place of its around-the-clock emergency unit.
In a bid to facilitate the smooth opening of the new emergency unit, all elective intermediate and complex surgery at the Drogheda hospital is being postponed for approximately four weeks.
“This will facilitate a greater consultant staffing presence in the emergency department in order to enhance safety during the initial period on transfer,” the HSE said.
It also said the new emergency department at the Lourdes hospital, which is three times the size of the old unit and was built at a cost of €11.5 million, will provide a much improved service for both patients and staff.
The old emergency department regularly had patients waiting on trolleys for long periods.
It is hoped the cancellation of some surgery at the hospital while the new unit gets up and running should reduce pressure on beds.