A Mid West nurses’ leader has slammed as “sexist and insulting” a HSE document setting out a proposed dress code for nurses and other female staff at five hospitals in the region.

A €15m extension at Ennis General Hospital lies idle today over a dispute concerning staffing levels between the HSE and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

The HSE has refused a request by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation to carry out an external review into the high absenteeism rates at Ennis General Hospital.

The HSE has admitted staff morale is low and that there is no accountability structure for clinicians within its acute hospital network in the Mid-West.

A senior consultant has described plans by the HSE to establish a trust to oversee the operation of six hospitals in the Mid-West as “rampant managerialism” and “guaranteed to fail”.

A complete ban on smoking in hospitals and on adjoining grounds in the Mid-West comes into force this Thursday.

One in eight patients treated on emergency department trolleys across Ireland yesterday were based at Cork University Hospital.

THE absenteeism rate among nurses at Ennis General Hospital is almost four times over the HSE target level, a report shows.

HSE absenteeism rates are almost double that of the private sector, according to reports.

THE husband of cancer victim Ann Moriarty said yesterday that his wife would be happy that the sacrifice she made has resulted in an improved health service and increased awareness around breast cancer.

“THERE is no issue around the future of Ennis General and its future is secure.”

THE Health Service Executive is spending hundreds of millions of euro every year testing blood samples for GPs who make no financial contribution towards the service but who still charge patients for the tests.

HEALTH Minister Health Mary Harney says the future of the current cardiology services at Ennis General Hospital is secure and will be further enhanced.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) will not be proceeding with its planned €40 million redevelopment of Ennis General Hospital, it emerged yesterday.

MALLOW General Hospital is one of a number of hospitals where the Health Service Executive (HSE) has failed to prove to the health watchdog the services delivered to patients are safe.

INDUSTRIAL action is looming in the HSE’s Mid-West region over management plans to get rid of up to 300 health service staff on temporary contracts.

Ennis General Hospital has been declared unsafe according to a new report from the health watchdog HIQA.

A YOUNG teacher whose breast cancer went undiagnosed at one of the country’s leading hospitals has told her story in the hope of encouraging other women with symptoms to insist on thorough tests.

VICTIMS with serious injuries from accidents occurring in north Tipperary will from this week bypass Nenagh General Hospital and be transferred directly to the major trauma centre at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

ST JOHN’S in Limerick has been voted Ireland’s best hospital for “quality of care” by a health website.

Caroline O’Doherty reviews the National Cancer Control Strategy, which provides the opportunity to see whether specialist centres are the best means to survival.

A GROUP representing thousands of people has threatened legal action to stop any downgrading of its local general hospital.