Minister insists Navan Hospital Emergency Department will not close in September

Navan Hospital’s emergency department (ED) will not be closing in September, Minister of State Damien English has insisted.

His remarks come after The Irish Times revealed that the HSE signalled that it intends to go ahead with a planned reconfiguration of Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan despite a pause and review ordered by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

The plan to convert the emergency department to a medical assessment unit has caused political controversy as well as prompting concern from senior medics.

On June 21st, Mr Donnelly revealed that he told the HSE to pause the closure and then earlier this month he announced a review of the services.

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However senior HSE officials, who noted the possibility of the Minister’s review, agreed at a meeting on June 29th that the reconfiguration would go ahead in September.

The meeting of the HSE board heard that there were “significant and serious patient safety concerns”. Minutes of the meeting, seen by The Irish Times, show that HSE chief executive Paul Reid informed the board that it was likely that the Minister would seek a review of services. The board then reaffirmed previous decisions to press ahead with the plans.

“Following the discussion, the board confirmed its decision to proceed with the planned reconfiguration of Our Lady’s Hospital Navan given the significant and serious patient safety concerns. It was reaffirmed that the planned reconfiguration of services would proceed in September 2022.”

The meeting heard that any correspondence from the Minister on the matter “would be considered if received.”

Fine Gael junior minister Mr English, a Meath West TD, was asked about the HSE meeting during an interview on LMFM Radio.

He said: “I want to be very clear. It’s [Navan ED] not closing in September. And that’s absolutely clear.

“Minister Donnelly has said that it won’t be. The Government has said it won’t be.”

Mr English said he was “not surprised” by the minutes from the HSE board meeting as it “matches up” with what the HSE has said publicly.

He added: “I heard the same rhetoric form the HSE before and I’ve heard it many times over the last ten years.

“They intended to go ahead and implement plans in Navan for many years.

“The fact of the matter is they’ve never proven to a minister or to me or to you that they are ready to do that or to make these changes.”

He said patient safety is “number one” for him but the HSE has: “never in my view convinced us that the capacity and the services in relation to ambulance services and other services in other A & are ready”.

Mr English said a review is being carried out on the HSE’s reconfiguration plans that will also “assess the capacity in the surrounding hospitals to see, if the HSE were given permission by the Government to implement this plan, would the hospitals be able to cope. We have different medical opinion on those.”

Local Sinn Féin TD Johnny Guirke said there is concern that the terms of reference of the review do not include protecting and enhancing existing services at Navan and he said this is “very disappointing”.

He also said unless there is a change to the terms of reference the “only thing HSE doing is closing A & in Navan and moving services to Drogheda.

“It’s a done deal if that happens and the only way that that can be stopped is for Stephen Donnelly or the Government to step in.”