Ambulances are to begin transporting non-urgent patients to Roscommon Hospital from next Monday.
The HSE has confirmed the decision this afternoon in an effort to help ease overcrowding in Emergency Departments across the region.
The expanded pathway will begin on Monday January 16th and operate between the hours of 9am and 3pm daily.
Stable medical patients that meet the agreed clinical criteria and live within the catchment area will be referred to the Medical Assessment Unit instead of an ED.
The HSE say this trial has been successful since its introduction at Ennis Hospital in the Mid-West recently.
The announcement has been welcomed by Deputy Denis Naughten who renewed his call on the Joe Finnegan this morning for this practice to be implemented locally.
He believes it will have a positive impact on Portiuncula Hospital.
''Lets say we are talking about 5 patients a day that would come to Roscommon through that. In terms of the overall impact, look at the reality of it, If we had five fewer patients on trolleys at Portiuncula Hospital as a result of that protocol, that would reduce the number of patients in that hospital yesterday morning by a whopping 25 percent.''
