Current arrangements at the Emergency Department at Our Ladies Hospital in Navan are unsafe, according to the facility's clinical director.
It comes after the chief executive of the HSE said yesterday that plans to reconfigure the ED will go ahead, despite a request from the Health Minister to put it on hold.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has also raised concerns, while Tánaiste Leo Varadkar questioned whether the HSE's plan is wise.
The plans have faced opposition from local representatives, with Aontu leader Peadar Tobin saying any attempts to downsize would threaten the people of Navan.
However, the Clinical Director of the hospital, Gerry McEntee, says current arrangements do not give critically ill patients the best opportunity to survive:
"The ED arrangement in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan as it is at the moment is unsafe.
"That is the view of the ED nurses that work there, the physicians, the anaesthetists, the surgeons and the junior doctors who look at the critically ill patients there."
While, Aontú leader Peadar Toibin, a Meath TD and chair of an action group to save the hospital, says Government should stop the plan.
"Who is in charge of the health service? And when will Government actually do their job and implement the will of the people on this?
"And that is why we as a hospital campaign are organising a mass rally on the 9th of July in Navan to show this is not tolerable and that lives will be put at risk."
