THERE were hopes last night of a breakthrough in the long-running dispute between consultants and the Department of Health over insurance cover.

I REFER to your article and editorial (Irish Examiner, Sept 11) concerning the Central Mental Hospital and its role in addressing the mental health needs of prisoners.

PLANS to treble the number of mentally ill prisoners treated in the Central Mental Hospital have been held up because of staffing problems.

MEDICAL staff at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) are strongly opposed to proposals within Government to relocate the hospital to a prison complex site.

TWO hostels have been set aside for young teenage mothers who arrive in Ireland unaccompanied by any adults, it has emerged.

The Equality Tribunal has awarded €16,000 in compensation to a woman who was discriminated against by East Coast Area Health Board.

GARDAÍ have requested health boards to increase controls in hostels for child asylum seekers who arrive here without their parents.

SOME 20% of people across the country have taken illegal drugs in their lifetime, but only 3% are classified as regular users, the most comprehensive survey of narcotics use ever carried out has revealed.

ELEVEN children and their mothers were being cared for in temporary accommodation last night after a television left on top of a cooker set their hostel on fire.

Assistive technology can provide solutions which make accessing employment easier for people with physical disabilities, Enable Ireland has said.

The East Coast Area Health Board is moving to allay fears over the future of St Columchille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown in south Co Dublin.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has announced details of its enforcement orders for January 2004.

A HEALTH BOARD is understood to have sought approval from a district court that would allow a teenager who became pregnant in its care to travel to Britain for an abortion.

MORE THAN 1,000 young people with intellectual disability and chronic illnesses have been wrongly placed in mental hospitals, according to the Disability Federation.

A NIGERIAN delegation to a conference on the trafficking of women and children yesterday criticised gardaí after they snubbed the event.

I REFER to a letter from the Director of Communications, East Coast Area Health Board (ECAHB) objecting to some aspects of a recent report from the Irish Penal Reform Trust (Irish Examiner, September 15).

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S newest health reform plan was fighting for its life last night after doctors and opposition parties declared major elements of it unrealistic and unworkable.

A CAMPAIGN to urgently find new foster carers was launched by the East Coast Area Health Board (ECAHB) yesterday as numbers fall throughout the country.

I REFER to the article entitled ‘Mentally ill inmates leaving hospital drugged up to gills’ (Irish Examiner, September 11).

YOUNG immigrant mothers and their babies are to be moved to dedicated apartment-style accommodation with the ending of funding to one hostel in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin next month.

More than 2,700 non-national children separated from both parents have been referred to the East Coast Area Health Board in the past five years, according to a new report from the Irish Refugee Council.

AT least six suspected victims of children trafficking were referred to the care of the East Coast Area Health Board last year.

THE country’s largest health agency, the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) is predicting a shortage of 1,000 acute beds in the region by 2011.

THE State has paid for two teenagers in its care to have abortions abroad since the referendum to limit abortion here was defeated a year ago.

Opposition parties have accused the Government of deliberating leaking a report revealing there are almost 6,500 unauthorised workers in the health service in its attempt to justify future job-shedding.

A CRITICAL shortage of speech and language therapists has left thousands of people with untreated speech defects and language difficulties, in some cases for up to three years.

THE lives of up to 2,500 emergency patients are put at risk every year in Dublin because an overstretched service has no ambulances available.

MORE consultants are to be brought into hospitals shortly on a pilot basis, Health Minister Micheál Martin confirmed yesterday.

DELAYS and extra pressure created by the A&E crisis are putting lives at risk ambulance drivers have warned.

DOCTORS and nurses in accident and emergency departments were yesterday forced to juggle with patients in a bid to find more beds.

FILIPINO nurses recruited to ease staffing shortages are leaving the country when their contracts are up having being recruited by hospitals in Australia, Britain and America.

CASH-STRAPPED health boards which are struggling to make ends meet will not be getting additional funds in the new year.

BEDS in nursing homes around the country remain empty while hospital consultants struggle to admit patients whose beds are taken up by elderly people well enough to be discharged.

GARDAÍ yesterday broke new ground when they advised heroin dealers of the treatment options open to them during their arrest.

THE bureaucratic delay in handing over medical claims to the new body responsible for reducing compensation costs will not be resolved for at least another month.

The High Court has criticised the East Coast Area Health Board over the death of a girl who absconded from Newtown House in Co Wicklow and died of a heroin overdose.