The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has told the North Eastern Health Board that Louth County Hospital in Dundalk will effectively be without junior doctors in surgery or accident and emergency medicine from January 1st next.
In a letter dated last Friday, Prof Arthur Tanner informed the health board that it will not recognise any training posts in general surgery at the hospital because the department "must have at least two full-time consultant surgeons".
There is no consultant in A&E medicine and a proposal from the board's medical adviser for a number of sessions a week to be provided at the hospital did not meet the criteria for recognition, the letter from the college of surgeons said.
The news was broken to the 100 nursing staff at the hospital on Monday night and they were said to be devastated.
In a statement, the health board said it has filled on a temporary basis the two vacancies for consultant surgeons and is committed to filling them in a permanent capacity. It is also committed to the appointment of A&E consultants for the Louth County Hospital in the context of the Louth/Meath hospital group.
Last month over 7,000 people brought Dundalk town to a standstill with a march to highlight opposition to any downgrading of the hospital. Dundalk GP and town councillor Dr Mary Grehan last night said: "A&E and surgery are the bottom line; without them anaesthetists will not be required and that means the intensive care unit will go and we will be left with a glorified geriatric home."
The fear that this could be the start of the de facto end of the hospital was reiterated by Ms Aideen Lynch who organised the protest march. "I cannot believe this because we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to retain and upgrade services at the Louth."
The Government's spatial strategy, which is due for publication in the coming weeks, is understood to identify Dundalk as a development hub but Ms Lynch says the town will have a population of 100,000 within five years and will "be the only city in Europe without a hospital."
The chairman of the health board, Mr Declan Breathnach, also a member of Louth County Council, was angered by the RCSI decision saying: "I am fed up with outside bodies interfering in how we run our business. It is three years since I asked the Minister to look at its authority; it has to be recognised that health boards have to deliver services for the people of the region and is being constrained." However, the Irish Nurses Organisation has directed its anger at the health board and the RCSI.
Industrial relations officer Ms Patsy Doyle said the two organisations were attempting to close the hospital and "this aura of a combination of Kafka and Stalinism coming from the health board has now driven our nurses to the edge. We will now commence a ballot for industrial action in light of this appalling treatment."
In its statement, the health board acknowledges "there has been and continues to be difficulties in securing training recognition for surgical junior doctors but it is continuing to work with the RCSI in a bid to resolve these issues." The board has eight junior doctors with full registration who it hopes will fill the four positions at the hospital and these positions would therefore not require RCSI accreditation.