Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Daly, Cronin and Buckley.

As the Minister for Health will be aware, this motion calls on the Government to retain and enhance emergency services in Navan hospital. We are also asking that the Government, once and for all, end overcrowding in emergency hospitals. Only major investment in our health service will finally change this situation. The way this has been handled is atrocious. It is becoming a feature of Deputy Donnelly’s tenure as Minister and of how the Government does business. There has been confusion and mixed messages from the HSE and the Government, and we need the latter to outline exactly what its plans are for the Navan hospital accident and emergency department and its plans for the emergency services in Meath and Louth generally. He said he has instructed the HSE to pause, but for how long? It is the Government’s policy to close the emergency department in Navan hospital, as outlined in its small hospitals policy. Which is the Minister saying? Is he saying the intention is not to close it, or that the Government is going to pause doing so while the public outcry remains and then give the HSE the nod to move swiftly on with implementing its policy?

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, is the largest hospital in the area and, under the Government’s hare-brained plan to close the Navan hospital accident and emergency department, it stands to reason the number coming to it will increase very significantly, as clinicians have told the Minister. This influx of additional patients is going to put unbearable pressure on the hospital and the plan cannot go ahead for that reason. North East Doctor on Call has indicated that the proposal to make the acute medical assessment unit in Navan hospital accessible only by means of a GP referral will place significant additional pressures on GP services. That was not thought out either. It will compound the matter. The doctor-on-call service recently had to reconfigure its out-of-hour services, which it has stated is because of acute doctor shortages and the underfunding of services, and it has told Navan hospital that it will not be put in a position whereby it will have to manage acute and serious presentations.

Will the Minister give clarity? Either it is his Government’s policy to close the emergency department in Navan hospital or he is going to tell the HSE to halt it completely and go back to the drawing board. Which is it?

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