The verdict of the review
• The manner in which hospital services in the northeast are organised is putting patients at risk
• A three-month urgent action programme should be put in place to reduce risks
• The emergency general surgery service at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, is non viable. All emergency surgery should be transferred from Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda
• All level 3 care, where patients need ventilation and other organ failure support, to be centralised at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital
• None of the A&E units at the five hospitals in the region are sustainable in their present form
• The critical care units in the region are too fragmented and too small to work effectively
• Major planned surgery in the region should not be undertaken on an occasional basis
• Telemedicine system should be put in place linking all A&E services
• The population of the northeast is forecast to increase to 432,241 by 2015 but acute bed requirements are forecast to reduce by 120 beds, because more services will be provided in the community
• A new regional hospital should be built in the northeast and it should be sited in the southern part of the region. A detailed site location study will be required
• When the new hospital is built it will provide A&E, emergency surgery, complex planned surgery, cancer services and possibly maternity services for the entire region. At that point local hospitals in Cavan, Monaghan, Dundalk, Navan and Drogheda would have minor injury rather than A&E units staffed by specialist nurses. They would also have a range of diagnostic services and out patient clinics. Some may also do day surgery
• The services in these hospitals should be networked