Campaign claims hospital staff to be reduced

Surgery and A&E services in Navan are facing total collapse according to hospital campaigners, amid claims that the junior doctor numbers at Our Lady’s Hospital are to be cut.

Any move to cut junior doctor cover would be so dangerous that it beggars belief, according to local doctor and PRO of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, Ruairi Hanley.
The campaign has received information that Our Lady’s Hospital is facing significant threats to surgery services and to the 24 hour Emergency Department.
According to Deputy Peadar Tóibín, chairperson of the campaign: “Senior management from the Irish East Group have directed clinicians at Navan Hospital to reduce non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) cover at the hospital by 50 per cent, thus leaving only a registrar or SHO alone on call in future on site.”
Dr Ruairi Hanley has warned of the dangers of this move and said the HSE has a technique of removing staff from a hospital and then declaring it unsafe due to the absence of such staff, thus providing a basis for closure.
However, a spokesperson for the Ireland East Hospital Group said there are no plans to close the ED in Our Lady’s Hospital.
Deputy Tóibín claims the direction to cut NCHD cover has been issued without the agreement or consent of the senior clinician in the area.
“There are serious concerns with regard to patient safety within the hospital and among GPs in the area.
“The existence of the current NCHD cover is vital for safety at the Emergency Department and for “walk ins”. It is also necessary to have this support for safe patient transfers and to arrange surgical consultations for medical inpatients. This latest action is another attempt to downgrade Navan and effectively close its Emergency Department.”
Deputy Toibín said the objective to close the ED and downgrade our hospital is detailed in the Small Hospital Framework Document.

Dr Hanley said it was extremely disturbing that the Hospital Group would remove an entire layer of this clinical support, especially when this has not been agreed with senior clinicians

“Furthermore, the campaign is highly concerned that this latest action represents a further attempt to downgrade Navan and effectively close its Emergency Department
“Any attempt to remove services from Our Lady’s hospital will place the lives of patients in danger. The loss of ICU or ED services from Navan will inevitably result in large numbers of patients suffering on Drogheda trolleys, with increased risk of mortality. Any claim that this is in the best interests of patient safety is frankly nonsensical.
“To downgrade Navan in any way is an act that will have a serious negative impact on patients throughout the region. But to do so at the beginning of the winter season, as appears to be occurring with surgical cover, is, in my view, so dangerous that it beggars belief,” he warned.