A damning report on HSE services reveals a litany of criticisms, overpayments in regions, luxury hotel expense claims and huge amounts in uncollected debts.

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.

THE HSE has wasted €1.7m on late payment of bills. Health service bosses handed over the money to suppliers after failing to settle accounts on time between 2005-2007.

FAR more joined-up thinking will be needed to make the revamp of the country’s cancer services a success, a leading medical expert warned.