Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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19. To ask the Minister for Health if the future of the 24-hour emergency department in Navan hospital will be guaranteed. [20921/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Our Lady’s Hospital Navan is part of the Ireland East Hospital Group. In 2013 Our Lady’s Hospital Navan was included in the list of designated Model 2 Hospitals under the Smaller Hospitals Framework. Every hospital in the Group, large and small, has a vital role to play within the Group, with smaller hospitals, such as Navan Hospital, managing routine, urgent or planned care locally and more complex care managed in the larger hospitals.

The Hospital Group is engaged in a programme of re-design work to further integrate and enhance the role of Navan Hospital within the Group and to ensure that it will provide more services safely and appropriately with better linkages to primary, continuing and social care.

There are no immediate plans to change Emergency Department services at Navan. Ireland East Hospital Group has been developing an Implementation Plan for future service configuration at Navan Hospital. Proposed changes to any Emergency Department service will only take place in the context of overall service reorganisation in the Hospital Group and will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner.

It is intended that the Hospital Group will continue to engage closely with all interested parties to ensure that the needs of patients, staff, the local and wider community are addressed.