Hospital campaign considers injunction to stop ED closure

The Save Navan Hospital Campaign is to seek legal advice on the possibility of taking out an injunction to stop the closure of the Emergency Department of Navan Hospital.

As the campaign ramps up its protests against the HSEs proposal to close the ED at Our Lady's Hospital , they will march on the HSE headquarters in Kells on 16th September and will deliver a 15,000 signature petition to the Minister for Health this Friday .

“We will consider placing a picket on HSE Head Office in Dublin the future,” said chairman, Peadar Toibin.

The atmosphere at a meeting of the campaign last night (Tuesday) was “defiant”.

“The people of Meath are up for the battle to save the most important health infrastructure in the county. Each of the 220,000 people who live in Meath will need it at some stage of their lives.

“A&E capacity is already hammered with the worst wait times in history and with the Mater and Cavan Hospitals just in the last week telling patients not present to their A&Es. This is a matter of life and death and we will not accept closure”.

Deputy Toibin said the meeting made a number of key decisions. “Firstly we demand that the Terms of Reference of the Review into Reconfiguration include a cost benefit analysis into what investment is necessary for Navan A&E to continue functioning in a safe manner into the future. That this option is not being even considered is a disgrace and again contradicts the words of Government TDs in the Dáil. We will also seek to carry out our own professional independent Feasibility Study into this objective to show the HSE it can be done.

“We also demand  community participation in the Review Group to ensure that the needs of the community are reflected in the Review. Real meaningful engagement by community stakeholders was promised by the Minister for Health in the Dáil in the Review and it has not happened ”.

“The campaign will deliver 15,000 petition names to the Minister for Health this Friday to demand the protection of and investment in Navan ED into the future.

“We will seek legal advice into the potential for an injunction to be taken against closure of our A&E”.

“We will march on the HSE offices on Friday September the 16th at 1pm. We will consider placing a picket on HSE Head Office in the future. We are also reaching out to other Hospital Campaign Groups and Patient advocacy groups in an effort to develop a National Day of Action on the worsening Health Service crisis in Ireland,” Deputy Toibin concluded.