Two hospitals to lose 24-hour emergency departments

TWO hospitals in the north-east of the country are to their lose their 24-hour emergency departments this year.

Under the transformation programme for the North-East region, Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Navan are to have emergency services, acute general medicine and critical care services centralised in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

In a statement released by the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday, it announced that senior HSE management and the group general manager of Louth/Meath hospitals yesterday briefed staff at Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda about the changes.