Hospital suffers further cut as medical unit to close on Sundays

The HSE has come under fire from local TDs over its decision to close the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) at Navan Hospital on Sundays from now on. Deputy Damien English has demanded a guarantee that the move won't lead to further cuts to services in Navan and that patients won't face long delays in treatment because of the move. He also expressed grave disappointment that the HSE had not consulted with the Save Navan Hospital Campaign in advance of its decision. Deputy Peadar Tóibín has warned that, given the disastrous damage inflicted by HSE management to surgical services at the hospital last year, "we can tolerate no more". News of the Sunday closure came in a week that GP and Navan hospital campaigner Dr Ruairi Hanley called on Health Minister Dr James Reilly to sack the HSE managers who created the shambles in surgical services in Navan, and as speculation grows that the emergency department at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, which services a large part of County Meath, will be reduced to a daytime only service. The HSE has defended its position on the MAU, pointing out that, to date, a small number of patients - numbering four to six - would have been assessed in the Navan MAU on Sundays. "These patients would typically not require an urgent assessment. The emergency department (ED) remains open in Navan 24 hours, seven days a week, and any patient requiring an urgent medical assessment on a Sunday will be treated in the ED," according to a spokesperson. The HSE also indicated that there was no plan to change the role or function of the ED at Connolly Hospital. Save Navan Hospital Campaign chairman, Deputy Peadar Tóibín, said that the MAU cut was yet another in a long line of cuts to services at the hospital. "Just a few weeks ago, we had a meeting with the Minister and HSE senior management. It was a meeting which we felt involved a good engagement from both sides. The HSE told us that they would keep in contact with us with regards changes of services at the hospital. There was no mention whatsoever of this impending cut," he claimed. He recalled the closure last year of general and keyhole surgery in Navan and the recent vindication of hospital staff. "The fallout from the HSE mismanagement of the situation is that a number of surgeons have had their professional reputations unfairly tarnished. Meath has had to go without surgery services for nearly a year and hundreds of patients have been scattered to other hospitals to wait on trolleys," he added. Seperately, local hospital campaigner, Dr Ruairi Hanley, has called on Minister Reilly to sack the HSE management responsible for the surgery situation in Navan. Writing in the Irish Medical Times, he said: "As a result of disgraceful managerial failure, hundreds of patients in County Meath were forced (and continue to be forced) to endure the indignity of a trolley in Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda. Others were transported as far as Dublin, as the Lourdes found itself struggling to deal with the additional extra demand. "The people responsible for this fiasco remain in their well-paid positions. They continue to run the health service in the north-east region and to pursue their policy of downgrading Navan Hospital. "Given the revelations contained in this report, I fail to see how the people of Meath can have any confidence in senior HSE management. I believe the Minister for Health must remove those administrators who created this shambles from any position where they can decide the future provision of hospital services in the north-east region. Dr Reilly, these people have got away with too much for too long. Now sir, it is payback time," he said. Meanwhile, Dublin TD, Deputy Joe Higgins, has warned of a threat to 24-hour emergency department services in Blanchardstown and said the HSE is costing a daytime-only service for the hospital. He has called on the HSE to clarify its plans for Blanchardstown.