This morning there were 577 people are waiting on trolleys across the country today, according to the INMO's daily Trolley Watch figures.

Access to health services based on need should be a constitutional right, the Irish Patients' Association has urged.

Up to 5,000 patients are to be informed that they have been exposed to a dangerous superbug.

More than 3,000 non-consultant hospital doctors will stage a day of action this morning following a long-running dispute with the HSE over working hours.

Patients will be guaranteed to be seen by a senior doctor within an hour of arriving in hospital under radical new proposals to be adopted by the HSE.

The Irish Patients' Association has asked voters to consider the Lisbon Treaty from a health perspective.

One third of A&E patients are unhappy with the service, a university led survey revealed today.

The 25% increase in the cost to private health patients to stay in a public hospital bed will drive up health insurance costs, according to a spokesman for the Irish Patients' Association.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has described hygiene standards in Irish hospitals as unacceptable.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) is examining how to avoid a repeat of the “unacceptable” situation which saw over 20,000 operations cancelled in 2004.

HOSPITAL consultants have warned that the Tánaiste’s threat to start unilaterally recruiting hospital consultants under ‘public only’ contracts “won’t become a reality.”

The Irish Patients' Association has called on hospitals to be more open and transparent in relation to the number of patients contracting so-called "superbugs".

DEPARTMENT of Health figures show that the average number of acute beds in public hospitals has increased by just over 400 since 2001, despite a Government promise of 3,000 extra beds by 2011.

The Irish Patients' Association has demanded government action in the wake of a television documentary highlighting appalling conditions at a nursing home in north Co Dublin.

AN ambulance crew carrying a patient to hospital from Dublin Airport had to wait 20 minutes while a clamp was removed, it emerged yesterday.

A majority of Irish doctors believe patients should have more access to information about the medications they take, according to a survey conducted by the Irish Patients' Association (IPA).

TREATMENT of elderly people in some nursing homes has the potential to be even more scandalous than the care of orphans during the 1950s and 1960s, a conference on improving patient safety in Dublin heard yesterday.

IN a bid to cut the backlog of patients waiting two years or more for surgery, hospitals are writing directly to them offering the option of being treated under the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

ALMOST 80% of people still waiting more than 12 months for hospital treatment are based in the East.

Nurses and management at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital are due to hold talks today following serious overcrowding in the hospital's accident and emergency department over the weekend.

The Irish Patients' Association has called on Health Minister Micheál Martin to state clearly when the Government will honour its promise to eliminate hospital waiting lists.

Dublin's five main training hospitals - the Mater, Beaumont, St Vincent's, St James' and Tallaght - are expected to announce further bed closures today due to a €100m budget deficit.

MICHEÁL MARTIN has promised money will be available to continue cutting hospital waiting lists next year despite recent budget cutbacks.