Official red tape hits A&E hospital services

ANGER spilled over in Wexford and Galway yesterday over bureaucratic decisions that have put the operation of a hospital’s casualty service in doubt and restricted the care choices available to pregnant women.

Yesterday Health Minister Micheál Martin promised to meet officials from Irish Medical Council (IMC) and South Eastern Health Board in a bid to stop the closure of the casualty department at Wexford General Hospital from next Monday.

The hospital’s accident and emergency unit, which treats 24,000 cases every year, may have to close after two of the unit’s six trainee or non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHD) resigned. One is leaving to pursue further training while the other has been forced to step down for family reasons.