The Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday that the treatment room at Monaghan General Hospital was not about to close but that in future it would be operated as a nurse-led unit.
HSE network manager for the North East Chris Lyons said the treatment room at Monaghan would continue to play a role - albeit a changed one.
Hospital campaigners in the northeast said yesterday that the emergency unit would close and that Monaghan General would go "off-call" for medical emergencies under the terms of a new report on health services in the region published in June.
Local GP and member of the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance Dr Illona Duffy said information leaked to staff at the hospital suggested that the treatment room would effectively be closed by October. She said the new report spelled the end for acute medicine in Monaghan.
She also said that chief executive of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm had said at a meeting in the region last week that the plan would be implemented soon.
In a statement last night the HSE said the report on the region, carried out by consultants Teamwork, clearly stated that there was a role for all existing five hospitals sites (Drogheda, Navan, Cavan, Monaghan and Dundalk) in relation to the development of acute hospital services in the northeast.
The HSE said that equally the report maintained there was "unacceptable risk associated with the idea that acute emergency (both medical and surgical) could be provided on each of the five hospital sites without risk to patients".
"They clearly indicated that this situation was unacceptable and unsafe. It is therefore the case that there needs to be a reconfiguration of hospital services across the five hospital sites and ultimately the development of the new regional hospital in order to ensure the highest level of patient safety. There will be a realignment of emergency services within the Cavan Monaghan Hospital Group and indeed within the five hospitals in the northeast. This process will influence the development of the treatment room," the HSE said.
Mr Lyons earlier said it was envised under the report that the treatment room at Monaghan would be operated as a nurse-led service, with doctors providing supervision of care from either Cavan general or the proposed new major regional hospital to be developed. The changeover to a nurse-led service would not happen overnight and there would be no drastic changes to services until better ones were put in place, he said. There was no basis in truth to reports that the treatment room at Monaghan was about to close. There were issues about acute medical care going into Monaghan hospital.
Mr Lyons also said the HSE wanted to ensure the best possible care was provided. He said this could mean looking carefully at the type of emergencies accessing the hospital and examining whether it was the best place for them to go.
Local Independent TD Paudge Connolly questioned whether there were adequate numbers of sufficiently trained paramedical or nursing staff to take over emergency services as envisaged in the report. He said the emergency unit at Monaghan and other centres in the northeast would be downgraded under the HSE plan.
