Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I worked in Navan hospital long ago as a senior house officer in medicine and, as Minister for Health, I opened the new emergency department there. My experience of the hospital is that it provides a very good level of service to patients who had medical conditions and older people with pneumonia or urinary tract infections, UTIs, the people who sadly might end up on a trolley in a big hospital. They get very good care and do not end up on a trolley in Navan. We must recognise what the hospital does well and I would be concerned about the impact any diminution in services there would have on Drogheda and Connolly hospitals, which are now performing much better than they did in the past. However, we must ensure that specialist services happen in the right place and changes may well occur over time.

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