Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 September 2021
643. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if ICU beds were closed or taken out of use at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan in the past six months; if so, when these ICU beds were closed or taken out of use; the reason for same; and the number of fatalities that occurred in the emergency department at the hospital in each month over the past year. [43490/21]
View answer644. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if a decision has been made by his Department and by the board of the HSE to close the emergency department at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan for any hours overnight; the opening times the emergency department would have if the decision was implemented; when the Ireland East Group plan to implement this decision given that Drogheda Hospital and Connolly Hospital are under enormous pressure, that Covid-19 is still circulating in the community and that nearly one million persons are on hospital waiting lists; and his views on whether the decision to seek the overnight closure of the emergency department in Navan is a reckless and dangerous one. [43491/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 643 and 644 together.
Our Lady’s Hospital Navan is part of the Ireland East Hospital Group. In 2013 Our Lady’s Hospital Navan was included in the list of designated Model 2 Hospitals under the Smaller Hospitals Framework.
Every hospital in the Group, large and small, has a vital role to play within the Group, with smaller hospitals, such as Navan Hospital, managing routine, urgent or planned care locally and more complex care managed in the larger hospitals. The Hospital Group is engaged in a programme of re-design work to further integrate and enhance the role of Navan Hospital within the Group and to ensure that it will provide more services safely and appropriately with better linkages to primary, continuing and social care.
The Hospital Group has been developing an Implementation Plan for future service configuration at Navan Hospital. Proposed changes to any Emergency Department service will only take place in the context of overall service developments for both the hospital and Group. With specific reference to Our Lady’s Hospital Navan, it will include the development of a 24 /7 Acute Medical Assessment Unit at Navan, an extended role for the hospital in areas such as delivery of day and ambulatory surgical activity to support the overall delivery of access to care targets for the Group, and strengthened links with the Mater in terms of clinical governance and patient safety. Reconfiguration will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner on completion of the necessary planning. It is intended that the Hospital Group will continue to engage closely with all interested parties to ensure that the needs of patients, staff, the local and wider community are addressed.
In relation to critical care beds at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan, and in relation to fatalities in the Emergency Department, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy with the requested detail.
