Handling of Navan hospital reconfiguration by HSE criticised by Donnelly

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has accused the Health Service Executive of failing to make proper preparations for its plans to reconfigure Navan hospital.

“Have there been tensions between Government and the HSE (over Navan) - yes, there have been tensions,” Mr Donnelly said on Wednesday, and these had forced his direct intervention in the controversy.

He said the HSE had been told not to proceed with the reconfiguration but “that didn’t go down well in all quarters”.

“In my view, the level of systems planning and resourcing required had not been done. Very important questions had not been answered.”

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The HSE has backed doctors at Navan who say critically ill patients should be sent to other hospitals for treatment over safety risks. But its plans to close intensive care and send emergency patients to hospital in Drogheda were frozen by the Minister. A taskforce is now looking at the resource implications for the north-east.

Mr Donnelly pointed out that although Navan was to be provided with a 24-hour acute medical assessment unit after its emergency patients were moved to other hospitals, it was not clear how patients could access this at night, when a GP referral is required.

“And while I fully appreciate the patient safety risks being raised in Navan, exactly the same risks were raised with me by the senior clinical team in Drogheda,” Mr Donnelly said.

Since they had not been given any extra resources, patients coming over from Navan could increase the safety risk in Drogheda, he said. “To my mind that’s not an answer.”

Asked about reports that the HSE could run up a deficit of up to €2 billion by the end of the year, Mr Donnelly said it had overspent on Covid-19, and also on post-Budget initiatives such as the Haddington Road pay agreement and Covid-19 payments.

In all, Covid related spending acounted for some €608 million of a €731 million budget overrun to the end of July.

The health service had no alternative but to respond to the Covid-19 wave that had occurred, he said, so this overspending “is what it is”.

He said significant improvements were needed in the HSE’s financial systems, which fail to provide sufficient operational and financial clarity.

Good progress had been made, but a “serious amount” of additional work on these systems was still required.

Spending on recruitment was under budget and several thousand posts will not have been filled at the end of the year, he said, while the capital budget was “ahead of profile”.

Mr Donnelly said he was very concerned about the risk of high number of respiratory infections this winter.

The southern hemisphere has been dealing with a “perfect storm” of Covid-19 and flu waves in its recent winter, he pointed out, and something similar could happen here.

The HSE is currently finalising a comprehensive winter plan, he said, as well as a specific plan for Covid-19, which will deal with ventilation, vaccination, therapeutics and public health advice.