Navan emergency department concerns
Deputy Tóibín argued that plans affecting Navan emergency services ignored local protests and consultant data showing more patients using the service than the HSE claimed. The Taoiseach replied that consultants held differing views, said there was no single medical consensus, and referred to past lessons on service reconfiguration.
Thousands of people marched in Navan last weekend to protect the emergency department in Navan, which provides life-or-death treatment and services for the people of County Meath. There was palpable anger that, at a time of key overcrowding, the Government was going to take capacity out of the system. Amazing data that blow the HSE figures out of the water have been provided by 23 hospital consultants. The HSE states that five patients travel from Meath to Drogheda every day but the 23 hospital consultants in Drogheda have used the hospital's own data systems to show that up to 47 patients could travel from Navan to Drogheda every day. I received a reply from the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to a question I tabled on this matter who stated that the review into the closure of Navan emergency department would take just a couple of weeks and that preparations for closure can proceed in parallel with that review. Is it not outrageous to review something but continue to close it at the same time?
Comment on this
I have long enough experience in health to know that different consultants can produce different perspectives.
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The data come from the integrated patient management system.
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The Deputy asked a question; I am trying to make a point in reply. As he will be aware, other consultants were arguing very strongly for actions in respect of Navan and they argued differently from the consultants to whom the Deputy has spoken.
That is fair enough. That is the way the world works. There is no one uniform view in respect to the configuration of services from the medical community in Navan or the north east. I have said before that we need to learn lessons from previous configurations. The centralisation of cancer services, for example, was opposed left, right and centre up and down the country by protests. As Minister for Health, I experienced protests in many locations. Ultimately, some of the decisions taken proved to be beneficial and had better health outcomes. That said, in other areas we learned as well that it led to too much activity or overcrowding in certain other locations so there has to be balance and we have to learn lessons from previous reconfigurations to make sure that we can get the optimal-----
