Aontú has uncovered that the Ireland East Hospital Group, which runs Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan paid out €53 million euro in compensation to people who suffered adverse incidents in the hospitals they run, according to information supplied to the chair of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign and Meath West TD, Peadar Tóibín.
He told Meath Live,  “There can be no doubt that stressful working conditions and poor staffing levels in our hospitals across the country create situations where mistakes are likely to happen. The increase in payouts made by hospital groups is deeply alarming and suggests more mistakes are being made than ever before. The figures show that the RCSI group, which runs Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda paid out €41 million in damages last year, representing a massive increase over the past decade – in 2013 the figure stood at €5 million. The increase here is greater than the increase experienced by the group which runs Navan Hospital”.
Deputy Tóibín continued: “In the absence of a breakdown in payouts by individual hospitals I can only conclude that given the increase in the amounts paid out by the RCSI group, Navan hospital is safer for patients than alternative hospitals in the area. It makes sense to retain all our services in Navan, rather than diverting patients to Drogheda or further afield. We all know that time is critical in emergency situations, and if Navan ED were to close, people would literally die as a result of that decision”.
” Incredibly given the massive amount of money being paid out in compensation the HSE is still focused on closure. There is significant pressure on Navan ED. We
need to be investing in more capacity not cutting capacity. “