A crisis exists in Cavan General Hospital, according to a local TD, Mr Paudge Connolly, who says that patients are being dealt with on a "fire-fighting" basis because of the pressure on beds and staff.
Mr Connolly claims that the problems at the hospital are being exacerbated by new training criteria from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) for junior doctors who work in Accident & Emergency departments.
"The RCSI intends to close 22 A&E departments around the country. They want to separate the A&E and Surgery departments, but that means a larger number of patients will then be needed to justify the extra positions, and I think a more sensible approach is needed."
The training requirements should be matched up with the needs of the health service in a particular area, Mr Connolly says, otherwise we would be "heading for catastrophe".
Mr Connolly says that before Monaghan General Hospital was taken off call last July, two days a week had been set aside for elective surgery in Cavan General Hospital, but the additional pressure on the hospital since then had resulted in operations being cancelled and beds being given to patients who would otherwise have been treated in Monaghan.
A spokeswoman for the North-Eastern Health Board said yesterday that Cavan General Hospital was taking only urgent elective patients at present. She also said that at lunchtime yesterday the only A&E department which had patients waiting for beds was the A&E department in the Cavan hospital, where three people were due to be admitted.
Meanwhile, Comhairle na nOspidéal is expected to discuss the creation of three additional posts of Emergency Medicine (A&E) Consultant in Drogheda and Cavan at its meeting on February 5th next, according to the NEHB spokeswoman.
The board has already been told by the RCSI that unless a permanent fully-trained Emergency Medicine Consultant is appointed before the end of June in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan, the hospital will not be recognised for training purposes from July 1st next.
However, the board has reached an interim agreement with the college pending the appointment of the consultants.
Meanwhile, A&E departments in the west were "busy" yesterday, according to the Western Health Board.
Pressure was such on the casualty department at University College Hospital, Galway, last weekend that a five-day surgery ward had to be used.