A major glitch in the computer system processing pathology test results in hospitals in Cork and Kerry is causing serious delays in diagnostic services, with patients left waiting and staff struggling to do the work manually.

Smoking is to be banned on the grounds of three major hospitals in the South in the new year.

The Minister for Health James Reilly has said no acute hospital will close as a result of the reorganisation of hospitals.

The number of cancelled hospital operations and procedures has almost halved since Health Minister James Reilly’s appointment — but still stands at 13 a day.

The HSE has refused to explain how much of its hospital food budget is spent on “overheads”, such as staff, storage and electricity — and, as such, what remains for patient meal ingredients — unless a significant fee is paid.

Hospitals need to tighten their budgets, but at what cost, asks Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Hospitals are spending as little as €2 on meals for patients — half the price of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and a rate doctors and nutritionists claim risks failing those most in need.

PATIENTS at Mallow General Hospital are being put in potential danger when permanent staff are on leave due in part to replacement levels, leaked correspondence has claimed.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has insisted plans to impose deep cuts on frontline services in the upcoming budget will not “cripple” the system, despite the fact health funding is set to be reduced by at least €1 billion.

WHETHER real or perceived, the threat to Mallow General Hospital on foot of an investigation into standards of care announced this week is causing anger and fear in the Co Cork town and its surrounding rural population.

THE most recent HSE evaluations at Mallow General Hospital found that the north Cork hospital was reaching most of its targets.

MALLOW General Hospital is one of a number of hospitals where the Health Service Executive (HSE) has failed to prove to the health watchdog the services delivered to patients are safe.

PATIENTS who are treated at hospitals in Mallow and Bantry will have to sign informed consent agreements acknowledging they are aware not all services are available due to the HSE’s downgrading scheme.

CORK University Hospital (CUH) has finished bottom of the pile in the HSE’s latest hospital performance table after being the only facility to be named in the lowest possible ratings category.

AN elderly pensioner suffering from dementia was forced to use a vital hospital bed for six months because no adequate step-down services were available.

NOT one out of 29 major hospitals has turned in a good performance so far this year, according to a Health Service Executive efficiency rating programme.

THE head of hospital services in the Health Service Executive (HSE) South has refused to rule out a downgrading of emergency department and surgical services in the region on a par with those being implemented in the Mid-West.

A NURSES’ dispute over a shorter working week will escalate unless the first step towards a resolution is delivered today.

PLANS by the Health Service Executive to end weekend emergency surgery at a Cork hospital have been condemned by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.

CONSULTANTS at a Cork hospital have sought an urgent meeting with both the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) over plans to cut weekend emergency surgery services.

DOCTORS and nurses at St John’s Hospital in Limerick have been chosen by patients as the most caring in the country, a recent survey shows.

A SENIOR doctor has warned of “catastrophic” effects after his hospital’s budget was slashed under a scheme to reward efficient hospitals.

Caroline O’Doherty reviews the National Cancer Control Strategy, which provides the opportunity to see whether specialist centres are the best means to survival.

AN organisation yesterday claimed that an A&E department in Co Cork is set to close as part of a centralisation of services to larger urban centres, a move first mooted in the controversial Hanly Report.

THE country’s best-performing hospitals in the hygiene audit yesterday insisted they would not be resting on their laurels.

THERE can be no excuse for the shocking conditions of hygiene revealed in a damning report that will inevitably be seen as a shameful league table of Ireland’s dirty hospitals.

IT WAS hard to know whether to be heartened or horrified by the gathering of health professionals that took place one early morning in mid-September this year.

A GROUP representing thousands of people has threatened legal action to stop any downgrading of its local general hospital.