By Maura Fay
maura.fay@meathpost.com
Our Lady’s Hospital will become “”band-aid, nurse led A&E” as a result
of repeated budget cuts by the HSE, Councillor Joe Reilly has said.
Our Lady’s hospital budget was cut last week for the second year in a
row. A total of €1,217,070 was swiped off the hospital’s budget for
alleged inefficiencies. Cllr Reilly said it was part of the HSE’s
strategy “to remove Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan from the general
hospital list.”
“I would strongly believe that it will lead to a reduction of medical
activity in the hospital. What that activity might be I am not in a
position to say at this moment it time but I will be putting a
question down at the regional forum next month asking the management
to explain the effect such cutbacks will have on Our Lady’s hospital,”
he said.
He sharply criticised Professor Brendan Drumm and the HSE for
continuing their plan to regionalise the hospital services in the area
despite serious concerns over patient safety. “What they have been
doing over a period of time is moving services from Louth and Navan to
Drogheda, even in the face of complaints by the medical officers in
Drogheda that they under pressure and over-crowded,” he said. “This is
supposed to be part of some sort of regionalisation of the hospital
services but three times a decision has been put off as to where the
regional hospital is going to be. They are on their own timeframe.”