Hospitals need to tighten their budgets, but at what cost, asks Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

A HOSPITAL worker was given almost €60,000 to leave the HSE under last year’s “cost-saving” voluntary retirement and redundancy schemes — despite being on unpaid sick leave for 18 years.

NURSES in Limerick are set to take part in a third day of industrial action over concerns the facility’s emergency department is a danger to the public’s safety.

A WAR of words has erupted between nurses and the HSE over a work stoppage set to occur in Limerick ahead of discussions by health chiefs over the latest cutback plans for the service.

A SENIOR nursing union official has described conditions at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital’s emergency department in Limerick as “dangerous and unsafe”.

THE Health Service Executive has spent more than €100 million on predominantly private security services for its facilities over the last six years.

THE crisis at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick took on new proportions last night when the hospital admitted it could not say how many, if any, surgical operations would take place today.

THE Health Service Executive has demanded urgent answers from staff in Cork and Limerick after it was revealed that several family members of HSE employees were recruited to well-paid temporary jobs without an open competition.

HEALTH Service Executive staff in several parts of the country have been securing jobs for their own family members without holding an open competition as required under the HSE’s own general recruitment policy.

HSE management is threatening to privatise 54 porter jobs at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital due to continuing industrial relations problems.

THE HSE said last night it is contemplating privatising porter jobs at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick after it emerged the 54 porters averaged nearly five work weeks’ sick time last year.

THE Health Service Executive’s controversial timeline for the downgrading of hospital services in the mid-west should be deferred until unanswered questions over the safety of patients can be addressed, medics have urged.

A LIMERICK holiday- maker may have contracted TB from contaminated air in the plane that took her to a sun destination.

BARRINGTONS Hospital’s in Limerick, which has ceased treating cancer patients, yesterday offered the use of a state-of-the-art mammogram machine to the HSE for free.

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.

THE long battle to get a resident neurologist in the mid-west is nearing a successful conclusion with an appointment imminent according to the Health Service Executive.

THE long battle to get a resident neurologist in the mid-west is nearing a successful conclusion with an appointment imminent according to the Health Service Executive.

EMBATTLED Junior Health Minister Tim O’Malley was last night embroiled in another health row on his own political doorstep in Limerick.

THE Labour Relations Commission is to arbitrate a dispute over the hours worked by nurses at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

PEOPLE in four west Limerick parishes are having to boil all drinking water over Christmas due to an ongoing health scare.

THE first patient will today be treated at the new €8.6 million radiotherapy unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

PATIENTS in the mid-west face long journeys and hospital delays for routine medical checks normally carried out by GPs.

HIGHLY-TRAINED ambulance teams are to be deployed in the Mid-West to improve response times to accident and emergency calls.

A MAJOR hospital yesterday defended its decision to reject a free service offered by a children’s health charity which is headed by former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.