There is no easy way to tell parents at any stage of pregnancy that their baby has a severe fetal abnormality and may die in the hours or days after birth. But delivering a late diagnosis only adds to the trauma and grief. So say the doctors and parents who spoke to Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan about the importance of a 20-week fetal anomaly scan.

The HSE has defended the number of managers it employs after a senator claimed a re-categorisation — which appears to show a reduction — had instead masked an increase in management numbers.

Irish nurse Berna Breen saw the brutality of gang warfare in Honduras, writes Ellie O’Byrne, when she worked in an A&E department for RTÉ’s new series of ‘Toughest Place To Be’.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

There were 601 patients on trolleys in acute hospitals across the country yesterday, the third highest figure this year, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Jazmine Sands is grateful for the occasional telephone call from Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, checking up on how she is doing, more than eight months after her baby girl passed away.

Ireland’s first doctor-led flying doctor service will be airborne by summer.

A plan to have 107 nurses look after admitted patients on trolleys in emergency departments has stalled because there is no money to employ them.

A campaign for Ireland’s first flying doctor service is under way for Munster and south Leinster where a signature red helicopter is touching down on islands, peninsulas, and renowned football stadiums from Enniscorthy to Killarney to Cape Clear.

The head of the HSE’s acute hospitals division has apologised for the recent weeks of overcrowding.

There were 520 patients on trolleys awaiting a bed yesterday, with Cork University Hospital recording the highest number in the country at 54.

Nurses require financial incentives to avert strike action in a dispute over staffing, recruitment, and retention, their trade union has said.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

A new clinical director for maternity services is to be appointed to the South/South West Hospital group where more than 4,200 women are awaiting outpatient appointments for gynaecological services.

Moving an adult with an intellectual disability out of congregated settings “works for the vast majority of people” says minister of state with responsibility for disability, Finian McGrath, who added he is very much committed to the policy.

The hospital overcrowding crisis is showing little sign of abating with nurses claiming over 500 people did not have a bed yesterday and the HSE stating in future more people needed to be vaccinated against the flu.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Ambulance paramedics in Clare are refusing to drive an ambulance which had to be ‘deep cleaned’ three times in recent weeks due to a fungus infestation.

Health Minister Simon Harris is to visit a number of hospitals this week to closely monitor the number of people waiting on trolleys.