With almost 559,000 patients waiting for their first hospital outpatient appointment, it is clear that the health authorities never got on top of the issue, says patient advocate, Stephen McMahon.

The patient in the Republic is male, in the east of the country and "associated with travel" from northern Italy.

Last year was the worst-ever year for hospital overcrowding, an analysis by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reveals.

There were 363 data-protection breaches recorded by the HSE in the first ten months of this year.

The message is being highlighted on European Antibiotic Awareness Day today.

Urgent action must be taken to achieve a major reduction in public hospital waiting lists, patient advocate, Stephen McMahon, has said.

The NTPF doesn't record the reasons why, but the Irish Patients Association says the audit suggests some patients may have got sicker and have presented to an emergency department instead.

There is €26m for a winter plan to deal with emergency department overcrowding in acute public hospitals, Simon Harris, the health minister, has confirmed.

Any plan to have GPs working alongside consultants in hospital emergency departments could result in an 'extraordinarily efficient service' but it will not work as a stop-gap measure, according to a leading GP in Cork.

Seven acute hospitals had 30 or more admitted patients waiting for a bed today and the worst-hit hospital was University Hospital Limerick with 76 waiting.

Cork University Hospital has blamed a "large number of very ill patients requiring admission" for delays which saw 68 admitted patients on trolleys in its emergency department and elsewhere in the hospital today.

It was the worst ever July for hospital overcrowding, with 9,439 admitted patients waiting for a bed, according to the latest monthly analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Ministers have expressed full confidence in Simon Harris over the latest CervicalCheck controversy impacting 800 women.

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, is set to bring proposals to Cabinet on Wednesday.

According to the INMO trolley watch figures 482 patients are without a bed.

A 24-hour stoppage looks set to go ahead after talks between SIPTU, the HSE and Department of Public Expenditure at the Workplace Relations Commission yesterday failed to reach an agreement.

Latest: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has played down concerns about the highest hospital trolley numbers this year amid warnings patients are fearful of attending emergency units.

Up to 500 ambulance staff nationwide are to hold a fifth strike tomorrow in a stand-off with the HSE over their right to be represented by a trade union of their choice.

Just one in five health and social care workers has been formally briefed on the HSE’s open disclosure policy, and only one in 25 has attended a training workshop — five years after patients were assured the policy would be standard practice.

Almost 8,000 patients were stuck on trolleys waiting for a hospital bed in the worst August on record for overcrowding.

One year on from becoming Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar’s popularity has increased, but several major issues threaten his reign, writes Political Correspondent Elaine Loughlin.

The husband of a woman who was twice given incorrect smear test results and subsequently died of cervical cancer has called for HSE boss Tony O’Brien to be sacked or resign — and has not ruled out suing the State for what happened.

The Government is “open to” changing legislation to guarantee any investigation into the cervical screening scandal is carried out in public.

The HSE has been unable to clarify which of the laboratories it contracts to process cervical smears produced inaccurate test results in relation to 206 women.

Sam McNicholl, who runs Connolly’s popular pub and music venue in Leap, Co Cork, has described sharing a trolley with a handcuffed prisoner in Cork University Hospital’s emergency department last month.

The Irish Patients Association says Ireland’s lowly ranking in a Europe-wide healthcare study is of concern and indicates patients have been let down by successive governments.

A new frontline health minister is needed to improve the country’s wellbeing, medics and patients have said.

A recall of around 600 patients who had undergone bowel screening at Wexford General Hospital found that 12 cancers had been missed including one death which may well have been avoidable.