A leading regional hospital is putting patients at “immediate serious risk” by failing to meet vital health and safety policies designed to ensure the welfare of the public.

Unions representing health workers in the North East are meeting HSE management at the Labour Relations Commission today.

The Labour Relations Commission is to intervene in a dispute between management and trade unions at the Louth-Meath Hospital group.

More hospital bed closures are likely, as the HSE tries to deal with a €250m overspend for 2012.

Sinn Féin has described as "disgraceful" the HSE's decision to close 50 beds in hospitals in the North East.

A HSE survey has found 20% absenteeism rates among general support staff at one acute hospital.

A man has died after he was struck by a car in Co Louth last night.

Hospitals in the Louth-Meath region are to become smoke-free zones, it was announced today, National No Smoking Day.

CHILD, elderly and surgical patients are being forced out of hospitals earlier or told to have one-day treatments because almost 2,000 public health service beds have been closed nationwide.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is likely to come under further pressure today after the Health Information and Quality Authority released a timeline of its reports on regional hospitals.

ALMOST 1,900 hospital beds have closed over the past 18 months due to staff cuts and an ongoing lack of investment in services.

HEALTH chiefs have identified a further ten hospitals with “significant risk” issues for patients.

GARDAÍ are continuing to question a man after the body of an elderly pensioner suffering from dementia was found at a public hospital’s in-patient mental health unit.

AN Irishman has drowned while on holiday in Morocco.

Tests will be carried out today on the body of a teenager who died in hospital after a street brawl.

The jury in an ongoing murder trial has heard that the partner of the accused man told gardaí he came home late and upset one night in December 2006, and told her “something bad had happened”.

The Emergency Department at the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk will close this morning.

TWO hospitals in the north-east of the country are to their lose their 24-hour emergency departments this year.

ROUND-the-clock emergency care will cease at Monaghan General Hospital (MGH) on July 22 and patients with an acute illness or in need of acute surgery will have to travel elsewhere.

UP TO 12 acute hospitals around the country could lose their 24-hour A&E service, following a review of activity levels by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Louth County Hospital in Dundalk has become the latest victim of the health cuts today.

Managers at the largest hospital in the north-east of the country are meeting today to review a decision to divert A&E patients to other hospitals in the region.

HEALTH trade union IMPACT has claimed a series of ward closures in Galway over the summer will have a devastating effect on patients and communities in the region.

THE Health Service Executive has denied it has made a final decision on a wholesale cut to services in the north-east.

Life-saving accident and emergency services could be cut at Monaghan Hospital as part of proposed cost savings in north eastern health services, it was revealed today.

Cancer deaths will not come down for several years despite a major overhaul of services, the Republic’s new cancer chief warned today.

A YOUNG man who received 600 stitches after he was sliced repeatedly in a vicious knife attack has praised the doctors who brought him back to life.

A 19-year-old man remains in a serious condition in hospital following an assault in County Louth.

A 19-year-old man was in a serious but stable condition in hospital this morning following a knife attack in Co Louth.

A 10-year-old boy has been killed in a farm accident in Co Cavan.

A WOMAN suffered septic shock and died nine days after being admitted to a hospital where surgery to rejoin her bowel was unsuccessful, an inquest heard yesterday.

AN extensive new library costing €7 million in taxpayers’ money is lying idle because of the government’s cap on hiring new staff, Fine Gael claimed yesterday.

THE frustrating lack of joined-up thinking in government policy is graphically illustrated by the bizarre case of a €7m library that lies idle because of a cap on staff recruitment.

A 32 year-old man was found dead in the garden of his house in the Brookville estate in Drogheda late last night.

ACQUIRED brain injury survivor Siobhán O’Brien, 29, says she has been able to cope with her disability because she hopes one day to overcome it.

Two hospitals in the north-east are to lose their emergency departments within months, a leaked report revealed today.

A man in his 30s has died after being knocked down by a lorry in Co Monaghan this morning.

THERE is a real danger disputes in the health service will spiral out of control, the Labour Party warned yesterday.

Thousands of nurses and midwives are to stage one-hour work stoppages outside six medical facilities today.

Final contingency plans were under way in medical facilities across Ireland tonight at thousands of nurses prepare for a another series of rolling work stoppages.

A dozen more hospitals will be affected in the next series of stoppages by nurses in their dispute regarding pay and working hours.

A LIFESAVING machine which cost €1 million has been lying idle in a Cork hospital for the last three months, because nobody has been appointed to operate it.