Internal HSE memo reveals plan for trauma patients to 'bypass Navan Hospital"

A long-term plan for the bypassing of Our Lady"s Hospital, Navan, for ambulance-borne trauma patients has been revealed in a Health Service Executive (HSE) memo this week, a local councillor claimed this week. Cllr Joe Reilly said the internal memo, which has been seen by the Meath Chronicle, strongly suggested that such a bypass was planned. He said he was extremely concerned that any change in the carriage of trauma patients which would lead to a bypassing of the Navan hospital, would also lead to a reduction in the numbers of people using accident and emergency services at Navan. 'This, in turn, would lead to the withdrawal of A&E services at the hospital. We appreciate the medical assessment unit which was put in the place but we don"t want any further diminution of services in Navan,' he said. In the internal memo, dated 29th August last, the HSE Hospital Network Manager, North-East Hospitals, Stephen Mulvany, wrote to John Saunders, Teamwork Management Services, following a meeting they had. Discussing a review of anaesthetic systems in the hospitals, Mr Mulvany advised that Mr Saunders should not write a report on an assumption that transfer of acute care from Navan was feasible in the short term. He wrote: 'Realistically, the advice to me is that same requires a further capital build at Our Lady of Lourdes which is planned for the space beside the current phase one and this is at least three to four years away. 'It is realistic to assume that we can transfer all acute care from Dundalk to Drogheda by, say, Q1 or Q2 2010. Prior to that, our current planning assumptions are that, upon opening of the new emergency department at the Lourdes between June to August 2009, we will convert emergency department at Dundalk to 12-hour and institute an ambulance-borne trauma bypass protocol at Navan.' The memo went on: 'The above may require consideration of what the key phasesd steps to get to the optimal solution need to be, bearing in mind the clear terms of reference for the anaesthetic review which dealt with the reality of managing risk in financially constrained environment.' Cllr Reilly called on the HSE to clarify the views expressed in the memo. 'People will want to know exactly what is planned for Navan. What does the HSE mean by 'ambulance-borne trauma bypass protocol at Navan". In my view, this memo raises more questions than it answers. I want the HSE to come clean and tell people what is going on here.' Meanwhile, Our Lady"s Hospital, Navan, has been given an 'amber" rating in the HSE"s healthStat report for January which means it had 'an average performance with room for improvement'. Navan Hospital is one of 25 hospitals to be given an amber rating, while Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, is one of four hospitals to be given a 'red" rating meaning 'unsatisfactory, requiring urgent attention'. No hospital managed to achieve the 'green" rating, signalling a very good performance. Our Lady"s also got 'amber" ratings under the headings of 'access" and 'integration" but received a 'red" rating for 'resources". 'Access" measures the waiting times that people experience for different services and whether patients are able to access consultant-led outpatient clinics, diagnostic services, treatments, procedures and emergency services within acceptable time-scales. 'Integration" checks that the services received are patient-centred and that people are receiving outpatient or daycare when they should be, whether they are being admitted on the day of their procedure, if the length of stay for inpatients is as expected and if patients and their families are being informed about their treatment and included in discharge planning. 'Resources" assesses whether a hospital is making best use of its human and financial resource, if the hospital is serving an acceptable numbers of patients, if the budget spend and staff numbers are as planned, and the absenteeism rate. HealthStat is a comprehensive data bank of performance information from Irish public health services. It currently provides detailed monthly results from 29 teaching, regional and general hospitals, which are published online on www.hse.ie