A man has been banned from driving for 20 years after he drove dangerously from Cork to Clonakilty in the early morning, crashing into a Garda car, repeatedly failing to stop for police, and only finally coming to a halt when gardaí employed a stinger which burst the tyres on his vehicle.

After topping the poll in the local election, Michael Collins is looking to the Dáil, writes Noel Baker

A machine which can significantly reduce the presence of MRSA and the winter vomiting bug has been installed in a Cork hospital.

The death of a young mother in a road traffic accident in West Cork yesterday has brought the death toll on Irish roads to 12 so far this year.

Nearly 50,000 people are waiting more than a year for treatment at hospitals around the country.

The chief executive of one of the country’s biggest hospitals — Cork University Hospital — has confirmed it will be "a couple of months" before new equipment is installed to replace its laboratory IT system server which crashed on five occasions this year.

A three-year-old boy has died after being hit by a JCB near Bantry in West Cork.

A charge of drink driving against a 34-year-old man who failed a breath test after drinking a gin and tonic ahead of a hospital appointment was struck out yesterday.

Acute hospitals will have €200m less to spend this year — an average 4% reduction per hospital.

Plans to transfer patients with acute mental illness from a large open campus outside Cork city to a city-centre locked ward, have been described as “appalling” by the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA).

Hands off rural communities — that’s the message the West Cork Communities Alliance wants to deliver to Government.

A young woman was last night fighting for her life in hospital following a devastating car crash in Skibbereen, Co Cork, which left 22-year-old local woman Meg Johnston dead.

Even now, a decade on, amid the jagged bays and bleak hillsides of the Beara peninsula, John Lock O’Sullivan is remembered.

Q&A Jan Jarvis

FOUR of the country’s biggest hospitals between them amassed patient income debt totalling more than €60 million last year.

A FORMER 17-stone truck driver whose father’s death inspired him to quit his job and transform his life has just completed the gruelling Tour de France — in his dad’s honour.

THE HSE is not commenting on claims that a special injuries assessment unit at Bantry General Hospital is to close overnight from next January.

THE Health Minister has predicted another “big row” over plans to transfer elective surgical procedures to small hospitals, and makes no promises on emergency reforms at Mallow and Bantry hospitals.

FINE Gael TDs and senators expressed anger and confusion over the possible downgrading of small hospitals during a fraught parliamentary party meeting with Health Minister James Reilly.

HEALTH chiefs have identified a further ten hospitals with “significant risk” issues for patients.

THREE months ago my father suffered heart failure on the morning of my wedding in a remote spot in west Cork, an hour before we were due to walk up the aisle together.

PATIENTS who are treated at hospitals in Mallow and Bantry will have to sign informed consent agreements acknowledging they are aware not all services are available due to the HSE’s downgrading scheme.

A MAN who learned to walk again after being crushed to within an inch of his life in a freak farmyard accident is planning to take part in a marathon to raise money for the hospital that saved his life.

APPROXIMATELY three in 10 consultants working in public hospitals are treating more private patients than permitted under the terms of their new contract.

A POTENTIALLY lethal bug has been discovered in a west Cork town’s water supply, forcing a local authority to tanker in water for up to 800 homes.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen refused to give any commitment to saving the 24-hour A&E unit at Bantry General Hospital when he visited West Cork.

HE TOOK on the ESB and won. Now he’s taking on Mary Harney and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to save his local hospital.

MEMBERS of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation have voted to carry out a one-hour work stoppage at a Co Cork hospital over cutbacks being imposed by the HSE.

TENS of thousands of people in the south-west face losing live-saving emergency health services with fears that Bantry Hospital is slowly being dripped dry of resources and staff.

FIANNA Fáil and Fine Gael councillors in west Cork have united in calling for a massive turnout at a protest against proposed cuts at Bantry General Hospital.

THE HSE is set to take a scalpel to Bantry General Hospital in a cost-cutting exercise that could see jobs and bed numbers reduced along with the axing of 24-hour surgical services.

IN October 2008 my husband and I wrote to the Taoiseach and to Health Minister Mary Harney about our serious concerns for the future of Bantry General Hospital and the devastating effect downgrading would have on those of us living in rural west Cork and south Kerry.

FEARS have been expressed that Bantry General Hospital may be downgraded after it was claimed the HSE has no immediate plans to replace the hospital’s last full-time surgeon.

Members of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) today threatened to escalate their row over shorter working hours.

Members of the Irish Nurses Organisation are protesting outside Bantry Hospital in Cork today over the introduction of the 37.5-hour working week.

OUR Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and the Mater in Dublin have been pinpointed as the hospitals with the country’s two worst accident and emergency (A&E) services in the country.

THERE was a very strong security presence outside a Co Cork courthouse yesterday as two Englishmen in their 40s appeared on charges relating to the seizure of €107 million worth of cocaine.

Gardaí have arrested another two men in connection with this week's massive cocaine seizure off the coast of Co Cork.

A PINK Barbie scooter lying abandoned on the ground struck terror in the heart of a mother searching frantically for her missing toddler.

Two men died today following separate road accidents.

A DISTRAUGHT local community gathered in sadness last night for the removal of the remains of the mother and daughter who lost their lives in a harrowing flash flood tragedy in West Cork last week.

THE new generation of Sinn Féin candidates, riding the crest of the party’s growing wave of support, would do well to remember the days when their percentage vote could be measured on one hand.