THE head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday acknowledged that the conditions that patients and staff had to contend with were not acceptable in as many as 15 of the country’s 35 A&E wards.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern struggled to defend the Government's record on the health services yesterday following Tánaiste Mary Harney's admission that the A&E crisis constituted a national emergency.

THE bizarre notion of installing “accommodation lounges” at A&E wards bears the hallmark of public relations spin designed to convince a sceptical public that things are getting better in Ireland’s ailing health service.

The number of people who attempt suicide or deliberately self-harm each year, including those who do not present at A&E, is conservatively estimated by experts to be in excess of 60,000.

SEVERE overcrowding in some A&E units pushed patient trolley numbers to an all-time high of 455 yesterday, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).

MUNSTER’S newest accident and emergency unit is close to breaking point, nurses claimed last night.

THE Government’s much vaunted plan to alleviate the A&E crisis was a complete shambles, Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus said yesterday.

ONGOING difficulties in the accident and emergency (A&E) unit at Kerry General Hospital, Tralee, were yesterday further highlighted after the resignation of the hospital’s A&E consultant, Dr Sean O’Rourke.

ALCOHOL is responsible for almost a third of all injuries treated in A&E departments, a new study published today reveals.

THE chief executive of the Health Services Executive has said his organisation must find an effective and lasting solution to the A&E problems in the North-East which led to the death of 76-year-old man last week.

THE overcrowded A&E department at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick is being clogged up by non-urgent cases because GPs say they are forced to refer routine X-ray cases there in order to get prompt examinations.

THE cost of running the new A&E unit at Cork University Hospital increased by €1m in the three months after it opened and a further e1m increase is expected by mid-October.

DAILY tallies of people waiting on hospital trollies are a damning indictment of the Government’s failure to implement its own strategy to tackle the A&E crisis, hospital consultants claimed yesterday.

NURSES are demanding that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern declare that the accident and emergency (A&E) crisis is a national emergency.

Evelyn Ring

AMBULANCES in Dublin are being delayed responding to emergencies because of overcrowding in casualty wards, a union has claimed.

NOBODY could blame Irish nurses for taking to the streets in protest against the Third World conditions which patients and staff endure at overcrowded accident and emergency centres in hospitals across the country.

Claire O’Sullivan

ONE THOUSAND more patients were treated on trolleys in Cork University Hospital's A&E department last year than in 2003.

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation yesterday predicted further chaos at Cork University Hospital, even if the A&E department is relocated to a new €24 million wing next month.

INSPECTIONS of hospital A&E units will be pointless if the Health and Safety Authority doesn’t make any significant recommendations to improve conditions, a consultant said yesterday.

MANY consultant surgeons, who earn about €135,000 a year, are sitting around drinking coffee because they have nothing else to do, the Irish Medical Organisation said last night.

A HEART attack victim who fell ill just minutes away from his local hospital, died after being taken to another hospital 37 miles away.

THE crisis in the A&E departments of hospitals has descended into farce, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation.

A NEW patients’ lobby group is disappointed the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has no quick-fix solution to the accident and emergency crisis.

OF the many ailments afflicting Ireland’s health service, the malaise in accident and emergency departments at the nation’s hospitals is by far the worst.

A HOSPITAL unable to treat a heart attack victim because its A&E service was off-call will remain closed to emergencies for at least two months.

THERE will be no new cash spent this year on relieving the pressure on hospitals' accident and emergency departments, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney told the Dáil yesterday.

HEALTH MINISTER Mary Harney should kick-start investment in the GP and community healthcare sector to tackle the A&E crisis, the opposition claimed yesterday.

THE Accident and Emergency department at Cork University Hospital reopened yesterday after flash flooding caused by thunderstorms forced to the unit to close for 24 hours.

THE Labour Party severely criticised Health Minister Micheál Martin yesterday for his failure to staff a newly-built €16 million accident and emergency unit which has been lying idle for almost eight months.

CHRONIC weekend overcrowding at a Wexford A&E unit led to patients being turned away, forcing them into an 80 mile round trip for treatment.

ACCIDENT and emergency nurses throughout the country are dreading Christmas and the New Year.

IT is frightening for us in Ennis that our general hospital might lose its A&E unit. The very idea puts more stress on those in the ‘at risk’ category.

THE Government believes that an A&E department at Ennis hospital is unnecessary.

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation yesterday declared the A&E department at the Mater Hospital as “out of control”, on the same day when Health Minister Micheál Martin reported very significant progress had been made in tackling waiting times in nine target surgical areas.

OVERCROWDING at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin reached new levels yesterday when ambulance trolleys had to be used to accommodate patients in the A&E department.

A LONG-awaited report on medical staffing will recommend full emergency services only be provided in a small number of major hospitals

THE Labour Party has urged hospitals to consider introducing separate areas of accident and emergency units for patients suffering from alcohol abuse.

ANGER spilled over in Wexford and Galway yesterday over bureaucratic decisions that have put the operation of a hospital’s casualty service in doubt and restricted the care choices available to pregnant women.

NURSES at an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department will meet with union officials this morning as the threat of further industrial action at the hospital looms.

NURSES at the accident and emergency department in Drogheda meet today to consider the threat of all out strike.

NURSES in accident and emergency departments yesterday deferred a threatened strike after unions and management decided to conduct an audit into the recent hospital overcrowding crisis.