The North Eastern Health Board has confirmed it has instructed ambulance crews not to take accident victims suffering from multiple injuries to the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk.
The health board has denied claims that this is a downgrading of the hospital. The change has been blamed on a lack of resources and expertise at the hospital.
A senior medical adviser to the board, Mr Finbar Lennon, said: "I advised the senior management at the health board last week that no trauma cases should be taken by ambulance to the Louth County Hospital and that was based on consultation that I had with the surgeons in the hospital.
"It related to a number of cases that they had to deal with over recent months without, as they see it, sufficient resources and expertise to deal with seriously injured people in these instances."
The changes were made in the best interests of patients, according to a health board spokesperson. "For many years it has been the practice that those who have suffered serious injury arising from road accidents in the catchment of the Louth County Hospital were taken to the Louth County Hospital to be subsequently transferred to Drogheda, Navan or a Dublin hospital as deemed appropriate by the clinician in charge of the case.
"The formal advice to the board now is that seriously injured patients should be brought immediately to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where the necessary clinical personnel and equipment are available to support patients who have suffered multiple system injuries," the spokesperson said.
The change has been condemned as "a disgrace" by local GP and councillor, Dr Mary Grehan.