The report on Róisín Ruddle’s death offers answers but is overshadowed by the failures of a system that turned a critically-ill child away, says Catherine Shanahan

Dublin’s Trinity College has reportedly become the latest third-level institution to be affected by a countrywide outbreak of mumps.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has issued a public health warning on the dangers of water activities after three canoeists contracted Weils disease.

NEW figures show more than 250 patients in Dublin hospital could be moved to nursing homes to free up acute beds and relieve the A&E crisis.

The Health Research Board has reported a four-fold increase in the number of people seeking treatment for drugs like heroin outside the area covered by the Eastern Regional Health Authority.

A BED shortage in Beaumont Hospital is impacting hardest on patients from outside of Dublin.

REGIONS outside greater Dublin are at the early stages of a cocaine epidemic, a health expert warned yesterday.

Drug-related problems trebled outside the Eastern Regional Health Authority’s area between 1998 and 2002, according to a study published today by the Health Research Board.

THE number of beds available at one of the country’s main hospitals has dropped steadily over the last three years, despite Government promises to boost bed numbers.

A YEAR-LONG report into the death of two-year-old Róisín Ruddle will not be published for a number of months, it emerged yesterday.

A SURVIVORS’ group has welcomed the appointment of an international expert who will review a surgical procedure that condemned hundreds of women to a lifetime of pain and suffering.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) has issued a warning about the dangers of sun exposure.

LABOUR PARTY leader Pat Rabbitte has accused the Government of withholding statistics he had requested on non-Irish hospital births until the referendum vote was over.

A total of 4,625 babies were born to non-national women in Dublin’s three main maternity hospitals last year, it emerged today.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has asked people not to visit accident and emergency departments in eastern hospitals unless absolutely necessary.

WHILE most of the mothballed hospital facilities can be attributed to a simple shortage of funds at the Department of Health, the fiasco of the vacant health centre in the €60 million civic building in Ballymun exposes a glaring lack of co-ordination between the various health authorities.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) has issued a warning about a measles outbreak in the east of the country.

The Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, has published legislation, which will begin the reform of the structure of the health service.

Mary Dundon, Political Reporter

Fine Gael deputy spokesman on Health, Dan Neville, today said he feared the termination of the contract of Peamount Hospital’s Medical Director would spark the closure of the TB unit there.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has asked people suffering from the winter vomiting virus to stay away from hospitals and contact their GP instead.

ONLY three of the country’s 10 health boards are represented at a major nursing recruitment fair in Dublin, at a time when hospitals are recruiting nurses from abroad to ease staffing shortages.

Hospitals in the greater Dublin area are being told this evening that they can re-open closed beds and employ staff to manage them.

The Irish Patients' Association said today that it supports the Irish Nurses' Organisation’s call for additional nurses.

The Dáil’s public accounts committee is due to question officials from the Eastern Regional Health Authority today about why a €246m investment has failed to reduce the size of hospital waiting lists.

BEAUMONT HOSPITAL said last night that it will admit a Mayo teenager on a life-support machine for neurological assessment as soon as a bed becomes available.

The Irish Nurses Organisation has accused the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) of deliberately ignoring the ongoing problem of overcrowding in accident and emergency departments.

OVERCROWDING is set to continue in Dublin hospitals without Government incentives to address nursing staff shortages, nursing chiefs have warned.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has announced plans to give English language lessons to Spanish nurses - and then hire them to work in Irish hospitals.

MORE than 150 patients, many elderly, were confined to trolleys and chairs yesterday as Dublin hospitals struggled to cope with an overcrowding crisis.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has reiterated its appeal for hospital casualty departments to be kept for emergencies.

The Irish Nurses Organisation is meeting officials from the Eastern Regional Health Authority today to discuss ongoing nursing shortages in Irish hospitals.

You are more likely to be obese, taking drugs and drinking alcohol in the capital and your children are more likely to be smoking cannabis.

The crisis in Dublin casualty departments is leading to another appeal from the Eastern Regional Health Authority.

A CONSULTANT psychiatrist has described a €70,000 mental health strategy report for the largest health board region in the country as “an undergraduate dissertation that was put together in a rush”.

ALREADY overcrowded acute hospitals in Dublin could be swamped if there was a major flu epidemic, a nurses’ union warned yesterday.

DOCTORS in the eastern region were paid for treating 12,419 dead patients because health boards failed to remove names of the deceased from medical card holder lists.

NURSES’ representatives are forecasting severe overcrowding problems at accident and emergency units will be exacerbated by bonfire-related injuries over the Hallowe’en weekend.

The chief executive of the Eastern Regional Health Authority says he is optimistic that the Government will provide the €40m needed for its action plan to cut deaths from heart attack.

A €40 MILLION action plan to combat heart disease among the 1.4 million people living in the eastern region of the country was launched yesterday.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority says it is to spend €40m fighting heart disease over the next five years.

A SPECIALIST in diabetes treatment has warned that more patients could die or suffer amputations if extra resources are not provided to tackle waiting lists.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has announced plans to spend €3.7m on combating alcohol abuse.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority says it is monitoring the situation in A & E departments in Dublin.