Recent reports that accident and emergency units in Nenagh, Ennis and St. Johns hospital in Limerick face closure were described as very worrying by the opposition parties.
A report due in the next few weeks by the Health Service Executive (HSE) conducted by a team of British consultants is set to recommend the closure of the three hospitals in the mid west, some media have claimed.
The facilities will then be replaced with "nurse-led minor-injuries units" according to a leak supplied to the Belfast Telegraph.
Liz McManus Labour party spokesperson for health called the closure of Nenagh hospital baffling.
"A recently published report showed that smaller hospitals in general and Nenagh Hospital in particular treat patients more effectively and more efficiently than larger hospitals," she said.
"Nenagh has introduced an innovative management process for it's A/E services by creating a process of direct referral from GPs. In this way patients who need to be admitted bypass the A/E and relieve pressure on the system, allowing staff to deal solely with accident and emergencies."
She added that it is "particularly baffling why hospitals like Nenagh who are addressing the A/E crisis should be targeted for downgrading or closure."
Sinn Fein Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD said plans leaked earlier in the year to close Monaghan, Navan and Dundalk accident and emergency units in the coming years signaled what was coming.
"Campaigners for Monaghan General Hospital have repeatedly predicted that the fate of their hospital would be used as a blueprint for cuts to other local hospitals throughout the State," he said.
According to the HSE, the number of people waiting in accident and emergency departments is on the decline.
Figures published today by the HSE claim that forty five per cent of accident and emergency departments had nobody waiting for admission and sixty per cent had patients waiting less than six hours to be admitted to hospital.
These figures have been produced regarding patients who have been seen by a doctor and have been judged as needing to stay in hospital for medical treatment, rather than patients waiting to see a doctor for assessment.
Nenagh, Ennis and St. Johns hospital are listed among the hospitals where no patients were waiting for admission to hospital at the time the statement was issued by the HSE.
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