A leading hospital cannot explain why five senior officials received almost €700,000 in non-salary, “top-up” fees — with “inconsistent recollections” from board members over who approved the deals.

Parent representatives have reacted with a mixture of anger and relief to news that a national children’s hospital site has been chosen after almost two decades of delays.

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) praised the Health Information and Quality Authority on the thoroughness of its investigation.

Health Minister James Reilly was told on his appointment that reducing the scale of the €650m National Children’s Hospital on the Mater site would impact on patient care.

A NEW national children’s hospital to be built on the site of the existing Mater Hospital in Dublin will provide “a world-class medical facility”, a public inquiry heard yesterday.

A number of protests are taking place this weekend in support of hospital emergency services around the country.

THE HSE board was warned of “accountability and responsibility” issues within the national children’s hospital project a year ago but failed to address the situation.

THE former head of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has backed the new Government’s plans to re-examine whether the facility should be built at the Mater site.

PATIENTS embroiled in the Tallaght Hospital X-ray review scandal have called on the HSE to immediately confirm whether the crisis is being repeated in any other facility.

A FORMER senator who was heavily involved in the North’s Patten Commission policing report will chair a three-month inquiry into the Tallaght Hospital crisis.

THE HSE has short-listed four internationally renowned consultant radiologists to lead a “warts and all” investigation into Tallaght hospital’s X-ray review standards.

A LEADING patient group warned Health Minister Mary Harney that Tallaght Hospital was a crisis waiting to happen as early as 2007.

PATIENT groups at Tallaght Hospital said people are “extremely worried” about the quality of care there after the Health Service Executive confirmed that 3,500 referral letters from GPs were not opened by consultants, on top of the 58,000 X-rays that had not been read by radiologists.

SOME of your readers have had occasion to benefit from the services provided by the National Children’s Hospital (NCH), now in Tallaght and formerly in Harcourt Street, Dublin. Also Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin.

A recommendation to locate a new national children’s hospital in the Bertie Ahern’s constituency was not a political one, it was maintained today.