Extra funding to see hospital beds reopened in Drogheda and Navan

An investment of €725,710 in the Louth-Meath Hospital Group in a bid to fight unprecedented levels of overcrowding at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will see the provision of additional beds at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, announced the funding boost through the Special Delivery Unit for a range of measures to tackle overcrowding in Drogheda, where a record 58 patients had been waiting on trolleys one day last month. The measures include increasing beds available in Our Lady's Hospital and the Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, as well as further measures in the community. An additional 28 non-acute beds are to be provided in Navan and Dundalk along with 27 non-acute beds in the community and a further eight beds in Drogheda. The acute Medical Admissions Unit will be extended to operate 18 hours a day seven days a week and five additional long-term beds are to be organised. Additional assisted discharge packages, including home help, home care and funding for aids and appliances, will also be provided. The funding will last until the 31st December this year and it is expected that the measures will stay in place in January of 2012 with funding from the HSE. The measures have been welcomed by Deputy Peadar Tóibin, chairman of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, who had called for a HIQA investigation into overcrowding in Drogheda. "We welcome this and hope that it goes some way to alleviating the problem. However, we will monitor this situation over the coming weeks to ensure that people are not left waiting on trolleys," he said. The TD pointed out that there had been between 45 and 55 patients on trolleys and chairs in Our Lady of Lourdes in recent weeks. "This is the highest number of inpatients without beds in any hospital in this State. In a further recent development, three patients and an unspecified number of staff in Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, were screened for TB two weeks ago. The enormous pressure on the emergency department represents a clear threat to patient safety and welfare," he said. He said government plans to close the A&E in Navan were ludicrous in their own right and should not not be even countenanced in the face of such overcrowding in Drogheda. He recalled that, a year ago this week, 10,000 people marched in Navan in protest at the closure of surgery in Navan.