If the Health Service Executive does not enhance the capacity of emergency departments in larger hospitals before closing smaller A&E units across the State patients will suffer adverse outcomes, senior doctors warned yesterday.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM), which issued the warning, also stressed to the HSE that reconfiguring A&E services will not save money. It could cost more.
The process of reconfiguring A&E services is already under way in the northeast and midwest and is likely to be replicated in other areas.
The association, which represents consultants working in A&E, outlined its stance in relation to the steps which should be taken to protect patient care during the reconfiguration process in a position paper published yesterday.
"All major reconfigurations require an appropriate lead-in time to ensure that substitute services are in place before individual services are withdrawn from outlying areas," it said.
The paper cites a number of pieces of research in relation to the effect distance from an A&E unit could have on a patient who gets a heart attack.
The association's paper stresses the need for timely management of patients with acute coronary syndromes but says that increasingly the quickest way to institute treatment in these cases is to have it implemented by the GP or ambulance paramedic before the patient gets to hospital which lessens the impact of increased distance from hospital.
"There needs to be a significant upskilling and improved provision of ambulance services as patients will be transported over longer distances to reach the regional centre," it added.
It also said ongoing A&E overcrowding in hospitals needs to be urgently addressed.