Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Brady was told the position he was taking was putting people at risk but he stuck with it and he perpetuates those falsehoods years later. It is an insult to the brilliant men and women who are working in Loughlinstown hospital. If he was to bother taking any time to talk to them about what the best successes in healthcare have been recently for the people he and I represent, they would point to Loughlinstown hospital.

Sinn Féin and other Opposition Deputies have a choice. They can play politics and ignore the warnings from doctors and nurses, as Deputy Brady did and continues to do, or they can have an honest conversation about finding the best outcome for people in the north east with regard to emergency and urgent care. To that end, I have tabled an amendment stating that the HSE and clinicians in the hospital have clinical concerns about the safety of the emergency department but also that the north east Doctor on Call service has expressed concern regarding reports about the acute medical assessment unit. There are also clear concerns from clinicians in other hospitals, including Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda, that their patients and services would be impacted under the current proposal. Critically, no Government decision has been taken regarding the HSE's proposal for the transition of the emergency department at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. The motion goes on to say that "several important issues, including additional capacity in other hospitals impacted, EDs, as well as the continued ability of people in the Navan area to access emergency and urgent care, would need to be fully addressed before any proposed transition by the HSE could be considered."

Navan is an acute general hospital with 62 medical beds. It does not provide paediatric or obstetric care. It does not provide an acute surgical service. Ambulances bypass the emergency department for several conditions that cannot be catered for at the hospital. As part of the reconfiguration the HSE is looking to implement, it is proposing investment in more patient care in Navan. However, for any proposal to be considered, we would need to be satisfied on several levels. I am not satisfied and neither are the Government or Members of the Oireachtas. I acknowledge that. Legitimate questions have been raised by Members of the Oireachtas regarding issues including access to the medical assessment unit, the capacity of the National Ambulance Service, local access to GPs, emergency and other resources in Drogheda and other hospitals, the use of injury units and more. All these issues have to be addressed and they have not been addressed to my satisfaction, to the satisfaction of the Government or, I dare say, of this House. We are all agreed on that. I have met with senior clinicians in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and they told me they do not currently have the resources required to cater for the additional patients who would have to go through their emergency department. For all of these reasons, I have instructed the HSE not to proceed at this time with any proposed reconfiguration at Navan. We need to allow for meaningful discussion and engagement with elected Members on all sides of the House and other stakeholders, including the community and clinicians. We need to assess all of that in the round and then decide where we are going. I want to be very clear on this. For the reasons I have raised and Members of the Government have raised, and indeed for reasons raised this evening, the Government position is absolutely clear. I have instructed the HSE not to proceed with what it had intended to do on 30 June.

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