One of Ireland's busiest hospitals is to get an extra 20 to 30 999 cases a day to deal with from next Monday.
But Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is getting no extra nurses, no extra doctors, no extra clerical staff to deal with the extra workload and there are real fears patients will die.
Senior HSE management decided to move all acute emergency calls in County Meath from Our Lady's Hospital, Navan to the Lourdes because it does not believe it is safe for Navan to deal with them.
Read More: Scene of 'total chaos' outside Drogheda hospital as 11 ambulances can't leave due to lack of beds
However consultants at the Lourdes are scathing of the move and say since they are currently 16 doctors short they will not be able to cope.
Only last Saturday the Lourdes was in the spotlight after 11 ambulances were photographed outside after being delayed there some for hours because of overcrowding and a bed and trolley shortage.
Last week paramedics in the north-east in an interview with us warned that the proposed transfer of Navan patients to the Drogheda A&E next week will be catastrophic.
One senior ambulance driver with years in the job said: "This is the worst time of year to be doing this with the Winter surge and we fear people are definitely going to die unnecessarily.
"We are in the business of saving lives, not losing them.
"A lot of elderly people are going to get seriously ill over the coming weeks and especially with the extreme cold weather that's coming.
"If the Lourdes is full and there are no beds, where will these patients go? There is also no extra staff to deal with all the extra patients.
"The HSE thinks the existing medical team at the Lourdes can just double its workload like miracle workers when they are already stretched to the limit.
"We estimate the Lourdes will get 20 to 30 extra emergency cases per day because of the decision to ditch Navan.
"It is a decision that is fundamentally wrong. If you really want to make changes, the time to do it is in the summer and not the winter."
A few days ago Meath County Council passed a motion calling on the MInister for Health Stephen Donnellty to keep the ambulance service connected to Navan Hospital.
Drogheda TD Imelda Munster raised it in the Dail where she also warned that it was a bad move and lives would be at risk.
The Government claimed only patients with an acute or critical illness will transfer to the Lourdes.
Paramedics also warned against people calling 999 for ambulances in non life-threatening situations.
Another staff member revealed: "The ambulance service is also under huge pressure because sometimes we have been sent on calls we should never have been on.
"We have people dialling 999 because their children have a high temperature, we have had people in their twenties and thirties ringing ambulances because they feel sick and have a pain in their stomach.
"Another young man had a skin patch that fell off.
"We know that GPs are telling patients to go home, have their lunch, pack their bag and diall 99 to get checked out at the Lourdes.
"We have had people calling for ambulances just because they were diagnosed with Covid 19 when they should be staying at home in bed.
"People should only dial 999 if it is a real emergency, not because someone feels a bit sick.
"It should in reality be a life or death situation."
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