Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the HSE has proposed a process of planned service changes at Our Lady's Hospital Navan and has advised that these changes are necessary to support safe service delivery on a sustained basis and are driven first and foremost by patient safety considerations.

I want to assure the Deputy that no decision regarding the HSE’s proposal for the transition of the Emergency Department at Navan has been agreed by me or by Government.

While recognising the very real clinical concerns identified, the Government has been clear that several important issues, including additional capacity in other hospitals impacted and the continued ability of people in the Navan area to access emergency and urgent care, would need to be fully addressed before any transition by the HSE.

I recognise that proposed changes to hospital services can cause much concern among the communities who use those services. It is important to note that the purpose of the reconfiguration changes that the HSE has put forward are about enabling Navan Hospital to provide more care, not less.

Patient safety and patient outcomes must of course be the absolute priority when considering service provision at Navan Hospital and I would like to reassure the people of Navan that I am fully committed to ensuring the future of Our Lady’s Hospital Navan.

The budget of the hospital has increased 29% from 2019 to 2023, and staffing levels have increased by 26% in the same time period. The Government is committed to Sláintecare goals, bringing care closer to communities. Under the HSE’s proposal, Navan Hospital would become a greater asset to the community by increasing services including orthopaedics, rehabilitation, diagnostics and elective surgery.