Unions cite risk to patients in new 'bypass Navan' protocol

A possible risk to the safety of trauma patients posed by a new HSE protocol which directs that they be taken direct to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda instead of to Our Lady's in Navan has been raised by the Louth Meath Trade Union Group. And the HSE has also been accused of going back on a pledge to Meath general practitioners that it would not institute any changes in the hospital system here until a new regional hospital was built. The Louth Meath Hospital Group, comprising Impact, the INMO, MLSA, SIPTU, TEEU and Unite, has written to the joint chairperson of the management-union industrial dispute committee stating that there could be "genuine risk" to patients and/or staff as a result of ambulance-borne trauma bypassing Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. They said that, during the night, there were two porters on duty at Our Lady of Lourdes and they had been made aware that, because of staff shortages, one of these porters would finish a work shift at 6am, leaving just one porter to cover the hospital in the hour until 7am. "We find this to be a source of great risk to both patients and staff," the unions said and called on HSE authorities to conduct a risk assessment procedure. Mayor of Navan, Cllr Joe Reilly, said the call by the unions for a risk assessment procedure highlighted the unrest and concern which was common among HSE staff at the HSE's insistence at "piling all of the medical problems of the region into Our Lady of Lourdes, which is already overcrowded". He said he would be fully supporting the unions' call for the risk assessment. "We cannot have any situation where there is the slightest risk to patients. I would ask, where do we stand now on the HSE's commitment not to make any move to bypass Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, before the new emergency department at the Lourdes is opened?" he said. Although some sources have indicated that that department will open early next month, the Meath Chronicle has been told that this may be "an impossible deadline" because negotiations with staff are nowhere near conclusion. Cllr Reilly said: "We are a year down the line since the new emergency department was to be opened. It is sitting there waiting to be opened but that deadline of 3rd March may be based on nothing more than hope. In the meantime, the HSE goes ahead with the bypassing of Navan Hospital with trauma patients in breach of all promises it made. In my vie, that is asking for trouble." Meanwhile, the Irish Nurses' and Midwives' Organisation (INMO) has said it will not co-operate with the proposed transfer to the new emergency department "until significant problems that have afflicted the current department are addressed". Tony Fitzpatrick, INMO industrial relations officer, said the implementation of the plan to bring patients direct to Drogheda, and bypassing Navan, ahead of the opening of the new emergency department at Drogheda was "idiotic and demonstrates a reckless disregard for the wellbeing and comfort of patients and the workload of staff". He said the HSE's contention that the new emergency department would be opened by 3rd March was "completely unrealistic".