SENIOR nurses have warned the death rate of hospital patients will increase due to the Government’s cutbacks in frontline nursing staff.

AN Irish mother suffered a “significant delay” in being diagnosed with breast cancer because her doctor refused to accept the lump was anything other than a clogged milk duct.

PATIENT lives are being put at risk because the Government’s ongoing health service recruitment ban is forcing nurses to take on excessive workloads due to widespread staff shortages, it has been claimed.

OMBUDSMAN Emily O’Reilly has described as “disturbing” a recent study that highlighted the lack of consultation with a patient’s family when deciding whether or not to attempt resuscitation.

MEMBERS of the Accident & Emergency task force were forbidden from raising the question of using more acute hospital beds to relieve overcrowding in casualty, it has been claimed.