The suspension of two consultants at Cavan GeneralHospital will have a serious effect on medical services, it was claimed today.
Mr William Joyce and Mr Pawan Rajpal were suspended without pay from Cavan General Hospital after complaints earlier this year relating to severe "interpersonaldifficulties" between them.
Independent representative Mr Paudge Connolly warned: "It is going to have a serious impact on services at Cavan General Hospital".
He said the problem had been flagged up on numerous occasions and should have been resolved earlier by health officials.
"I feel it is a tragedy that it has come to this particular point where we have two consultant surgeons suspended," he said. Mr Connolly said the situation could take months to resolve and that the employment of locum consultants was not the answer.
"Now we are left in the situation that this is going to have a very negative effect at Cavan General Hospital and on the people of Cavan," he added.
The circumstances that led to the decision by the North Eastern Health Board to suspend both consultants last night were not clarified by the health board.
The suspensions have left just one surgeon working in the hospital, although the health board said it was seeking locum cover in the absence of the twosurgeons.
Last night the board requested the Minister for Health, Mr Micheal Martin, to appoint a committee to examine the affair.
PA