Our Lady's Hospital in Navan does not have sufficient infrastructure to care safely for major emergencies, according to a draft new report for the Health Service Executive (HSE).
The report, which was compiled by a firm of British consultants, says there is no operating theatre fully staffed around the clock for emergency cases.
In addition, it says there are insufficient numbers of general surgeons in the hospital and that consultant supervision of the hospital's A&E unit is unsatisfactory.
It concludes that no emergency surgery or trauma cases should be admitted to the hospital and that its A&E unit should only treat minor injuries.
The report from Capita Consultants comes to similar conclusions as another report commissioned by the HSE and published last June. The Teamwork report recommended that emergency surgery be immediately removed from the Navan hospital and moved to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda.
It said the emergency general surgical service in Navan was being "held together by only two consultants".
It also said patients attending A&E in Navan were seen by junior doctors who did not have constant consultant supervision.
However, 12 months on, emergency surgery has not been transferred from Navan to Drogheda, and Navan hospital still accepts emergencies at its A&E unit around the clock.
Chris Lyons, the manager of the northeast hospital network, told The Irish Timesin March the HSE would not be transferring any more services to Drogheda until the necessary resources and staffing were in place there.
"So, for example, in order to allow emergency surgery to move over from Navan, we are going to need a number of things.
"We are going to need additional theatre capacity.Until we get those basic building blocks in place we will not be transferring over anything from Navan or any other hospital."
A plan for the implementation of the Teamwork report, leaked just before the election, made it clear the HSE has plans to reduce the A&E department in Navan to a minor injuries unit in either 2008 or 2009.
Responding to the Capita report yesterday, the HSE in a statement said the report was at consultation stage and not yet finalised.
"This review was commissioned as the final phase of a review process, which included work carried out in 2005 and 2006 by Sector Healthcare and the RCSI," it said.
It reiterated that services would remain in place until they were replaced with higher quality, safer or more appropriate services.
However the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said the HSE was failing to put patients first.
"It is indefensible of the HSE to continue operating a system that has been found wanting," said its assistant secretary general Donal Duffy.
"The HSE has a range of options open to it which, with some leadership and planning, can be implemented without great difficulty or cost."