Navan hospital doctors resist cutbacks to surgical services

Plans for immediate cutbacks to surgical services at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan are being resisted by senior doctors.

The Save Navan Hospital Campaign claims the plans represent a further attempt to downgrade the Co Meath hospital and effectively close its emergency department.

The hospital ceased accepting surgical admissions in 2012, but continues to see “walk-in” patients and transfers patients requiring surgery to other hospitals.

Under the proposed changes, the existing two layers of staff present in the surgical department out of hours are being reduced to one in order to save money. This will leave one junior doctor working in the department at nights, with oncall support from an off-site consultant.

Staff cover all surgical emergencies as well as coronary care, intensive care and orthopaedic patients out of hours. They are also responsible for the transfer of surgical patients to other hospitals.

Ireland East hospital group, which includes Navan, has told staff to implement the new arrangement immediately but senior clinical staff have proposed alternatives. Because of the standoff, no revised rosters have yet been drawn up.

Ireland East group

Minister for Health Simon Harris said any changes in Navan would need to take account of existing patient flows, demands in other hospitals and the need to develop services in the context of the Ireland East group.

Smaller hospitals must increasingly focus on managing routine, urgent or planned care while more complex care is provided by larger hospitals, he told the Dáil last week. There was significant potential for enhancing Navan’s role within the group.

Local GP Dr Rúairí Hanley, spokesman for the local hospital action group, warned any attempt to reduce services in Navan would place the lives of patients in danger and cause further overcrowding in Drogheda and other hospitals in the region.

"It is extremely disturbing that the hospital group would remove an entire layer of this clinical support, especially when this has not been agreed with senior clinicians," he told Mary Day, head of the hospital group, in a letter.

A 2009 report by the Health Information and Quality Authority raised questions about safety in many smaller hospitals, including Navan.

The Health Service Executive wants to move emergency services to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, but objectors say that emergency department is already overstretched and would not be able to cope with an increase in patient numbers.