Two of the five acute hospitals in the north-east are to lose their Accident and Emergency departments within months with a third to lose its A&E department in 2009.
A leaked HSE report, 'Teamwork Implementation Project Network Priorities 2007' also outlines savings of €7.2m to be made over the next two years as well as the loss of 48 temporary jobs.
The report was released today by Sinn Féin after they obtained a copy of the document.
It outlines that the A&E services in Monaghan and Dundalk hospitals will close some time next year with Our Lady's Hospital in Navan losing its A&E unit in 2009.
Instead they will become 'ambulatory hospitals' from where people will be brought by ambulance to larger hospitals.
All three hospitals will see major reductions in areas such as medicine, surgery, anaesthesia and radiology.
The report says the changes 'present major opportunities for savings, efficiencies and staff redeployment'.
When a new regional hospital becomes operational around 2012, all five hospitals in the region, including Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Cavan General will become ambulatory centres, ferrying patients to the new larger facility wherever it is.
Last year, the HSE published the Teamwork report which recommended centralising all services from the five hospitals into one new regional centre. This report sets out a timetable for that.
No decision has been made on the location of the new regional hospital although Gormanstown in Co Meath as well as Drogheda and Ardee in Co Louth have been suggested.
In response to the leak, the HSE has said that the document 'may concern draft proposals' being prepared in a bid to secure funding for the initial phase of the reconfiguration.
The HSE says it is 'unfortunate' the report is being politicised in the heat of a General Election debate, saying it serves only to 'cause confusion and unnecessary anxiety' to staff and users.
