Louth TD urges government to change course on ambulance bypass protocol for Navan Hospital

Louth TD Ged Nash has urged the government to reconsider their decision to direct ambulances with critically ill patients to bypass Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, citing the impact it would have on an already stretched Drogheda Hospital.

Addressing Minister Michael McGrath, who was taking questions for the the government, he said:

“The impact of the changes the Minister for Health will make to Navan emergency department, ED, or Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda from next Monday will mean that "patients may die". 

“These are not my words. These are only some of the words of 17 hospital consultants of my own local hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes, in Drogheda, expressed in what was an alarming letter to the Minister last week.”

He outlined a situation on Saturday night which saw  eleven ambulances parked outside Drogheda Hospital treating sick patients in the back because no trolleys were available in the ED and no beds in the hospital. 

He continued:

“This is completely unacceptable. Staff were at their wits' end. There are no new beds and a deficit of 16 unfilled non-consultant hospital doctor posts.

No extra resources are to be provided to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital to accommodate this change but the hospital is expected to receive many more sick and unwell patients from the Meath area over the next period from next Monday as a result of the Government's plan.”

“The Government needs to change course. The Government needs to consider that proposal and the impact it will have on staff and patients who need to be accommodated in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.”

In response Michael McGrath said Minister Stephen Donnelly, has spoken to some colleagues on this issue and “has made it clear that, contrary some reports, the ED in Navan is not closing this month.”

“Of course, a concern the Deputy has is the knock-on consequences for Drogheda and the ambulance bypass protocol. 

“The only change, as I understand it, is in a very exceptional and specific circumstance where in the opinion of the paramedic in the ambulance, some discretion is being provided on certain narrow grounds the Minister and the HSE will clarify. 

“Those wider changes are not happening,” he concluded.