THE IRISH Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has expressed its “serious concerns” about the end of major trauma services at Navan hospital from this weekend.
Its members will not co-operate with the move until its concerns are met, it says.
The HSE yesterday announced that from Friday at midnight, complex trauma patients in the Meath area requiring surgical intervention would be taken by ambulance directly to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth, or the nearest appropriate hospital, not first to Navan, Co Meath.
There will continue to be a 24-hour AE department at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, and ambulances will continue to bring less complex and non-surgical cases there.
Until now major traumas in the area were being brought first to Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, to be stabilised before being moved on, usually to Our Lady of Lourdes or to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin. No complex surgery has been performed at Navan since 2006.
The direction to take patients directly to these hospitals “is in the interest of patient safety and to ensure the best possible outcome for patients,” the HSE statement noted.
The move has been in the pipeline since 2007 when a draft report concluded that the Navan hospital did not have sufficient infrastructure to care safely for major emergencies.
In September last year, staff at Our Lady’s hospital and at Louth County Hospital in Drogheda were briefed about plans to eventually centralise acute medical care and critical care services at Drogheda. The INMO says there are not enough beds at Drogheda.
“This often results in admitted patients spending excessive time in the emergency department on trolleys, sometimes up to three or four days.”
The organisation said there were 24 patients on trolleys in Drogheda yesterday and five in Navan hospital. “Our members will not co-operate with the transfer to the new emergency department until the significant problems that have afflicted the current department are addressed.”
Local Fine Gael TDs Damien English and Shane McEntee criticised the move as a “terrible blow to Meath and all its residents. “The HSE has clearly deliberately downgraded Navan Hospital to pave the way for this decision,” they said.
