Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

For ten years, the Government's stated policy has been to close the accident and emergency department in Navan hospital. The hospital was put on the list in the small hospital framework document. It was to be moved to a level 2 hospital. It was on the HIQA hit list of ten hospitals that were to have accident and emergency departments removed. Navan hospital is the only one of those ten hospitals whose accident and emergency remains open. In March 2020, the HSE went public to say it would close the accident and emergency department at the end of March overnight. The only reason it did not do so was that cases of Covid started to arise in the country. It postponed the closure until April and then completely dropped the plan because Covid was swamping the country. In the past fortnight, four medical professionals have told me the HSE has made a formal decision to close the accident and emergency overnight. We know from a parliamentary question I submitted that the Minister has admitted a programme of redesign is under way in the Ireland East Hospital Group. That redesign includes provision for a 24-7 acute medical assessment unit in Navan, in other words, a replacement for the accident and emergency department.

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