AN ACCIDENT AND Emergency department at St. Columcilles’s Hospital in Loughlinstown Dublin which dealt with 21,000 cases last year is to close at some stage this year.
The HSE has said that the hospital will be left with a minor injury service, operating during the day, and that emergency cases will sent to St. Vincent’s hospital reports RTE. However, no date has been set.
It comes as health sector unions issue a second warning in 24 hours that chaos will descend on the hospital system within days, reports the Irish Examiner.
Wicklow Labour TD Anne Ferris said the Loughlinstown decision is a devastating one for families living in Co. Wicklow who are currently using the acute services, while People Before Profit Alliance TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said shutting down the 24-hour service was “utterly unacceptable”.
The HSE has also said that the hospital will stop accepting acute surgical cases by the end of the year.
Local residents have been taking to Twitter to vent their frustration with @stainlessSRat commenting that St Vincent’s Hospital is “not very near in an emergency” and @Nelligirl101 calling the decision “mad”.
Twitter user Cara D said that he family were among those who had used the A&E department in recent years:
However other locals said that they had “bypassed” Loughlinstown in the past in favour of St. Vincents.
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