Hospitals to lose emergency departments

Two hospitals in the north-east are to lose their emergency departments within months, a leaked report revealed today.

A third facility in the region also faces having its unit closed by 2009, the controversial document stated.

The Teamwork Implementation Project Network Priorities 2007 showed that A&E services in Monaghan and Dundalk hospitals will close sometime next year, with Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan following in two years.

It also revealed that 48 temporary jobs will be lost with the closures, while savings of 7.2m euro will be made over the next two years.

The document was released today by Sinn Fein, who called on the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to intervene.

Arthur Morgan, Louth TD, said the HSE plans show that the loss of services at Louth Hospital is not about better services but part of a money saving operation.

“This document clearly exposes the real intent of this Government in respect of essential health services in the North East generally, and Dundalk in particular,” he said.

“It reveals that Accident & Emergency services, as well as the Intensive Care Unit and all acute medical services will be transferred to the Lourdes from the Louth County Hospital by July 2008.

“This will cause great hardship and puts the lives of vulnerable people of the greater Dundalk area at risk particularly the old and the sick.

“The Louth Hospital has been there since the 1950s providing essential health service. It is ironic given the growing population in the area together with the healthy economy that these services are now being cut.”

According to the report, all three hospitals will be hit with major reductions in areas such as medicine, surgery, anaesthesia and radiology.

It said when a new regional hospital becomes operational around 2012, all five hospitals in the region – including Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Cavan General Hospital will become ambulatory centres – where people will be brought by ambulance to larger hospitals.

Acute psychiatric service will locate to the new regional hospital site.

The party said it has exposed a number of plans that will affect patients at Monaghan General Hospital including the reduction of the treatment room from 8am to 8pm daily, and the transfer of acute medicine to Cavan and of Critical Care patients to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

“The HSE and the FF/PD government did not want this document to enter the public arena before the General Election,” said the party’s spokesperson on health Caoimhghin O Caolain.

“They have sought to conceal the facts, the full facts, regarding their plans for the future of services at both Monaghan and Cavan General Hospitals and at the Louth Hospital in Dundalk, at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan and at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.”

Last year, the HSE published the Teamwork report which recommended centralising all services from the five hospitals into one new regional centre. This report sets out a timetable for that.

No decision has yet been made on the location of the new regional hospital.

The HSE said while it has not seen the leaked document, it believes that it may concern draft proposals, which were being prepared in a bid to secure funding for the initial phase of the reconfiguration that is necessary to improve services in the region.

“It is unfortunate that this document is being politicised in the way that it has been leaked today, in the heat of a General Election debate,” said a HSE spokeswoman.

“It serves only to cause confusion and unnecessary anxiety to staff and service users.

“The HSE has a responsibility to its staff and the public to inform them of approved planned developments in an open and transparent manner as part of our ongoing information campaign and staff communication systems.”