The Government is poised to sanction the development of a €5m expansion at a large general hospital in Cork.

PLANS to build a new medical assessment unit and an endoscopy unit at Mallow General Hospital have been copper fastened by the allocation of €1.5 million in funding for the project, according to Junior Minister Seán Sherlock.

AN internal report outlining how the hospital system will be reconfigured — including the exact services to be moved from 10 small hospitals — is set to be given to Health Minister Dr James Reilly.

FINE Gael TDs and senators expressed anger and confusion over the possible downgrading of small hospitals during a fraught parliamentary party meeting with Health Minister James Reilly.

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.

The HSE has confirmed that HIQA inspectors have never visited Roscommon County Hospital, which was downgraded this week.

The HSE has moved to reassure patients that Mallow General Hospital in Cork is safe after a damning report from the health watchdog.

A report into the quality and safety of certain services at Mallow General Hospital in Cork has found the HSE has been slow to implement recommended changes.

I SERVED for 12 years in a voluntary capacity as secretary of the Mallow Hospital Retention Committee under the chairmanship of the late Joe Sherlock TD who was at that time a socially committed member of Mallow Urban District Council.

IT is a source of great consolation to see the defence of the Bastille that is Mallow General Hospital once again led by a Sherlock.

TRADE union SIPTU has suggested that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) carry out an audit of service provision in Cork University Hospital (CUH) due to overcrowding.

THE inquiry into Mallow General Hospital, leaked to RTÉ before last weekend, was allegedly instigated because of complaints received by HIQA from patients about clinical care received in the hospital.

I BELIEVE the HIQA inquiry into Mallow hospital is really a move by government to try to close it.

THE state’s independent health watchdog will announce the terms of reference for its inquiry into Mallow General Hospital today.

A man has died following a road crash on the main Cork to Limerick road this morning.

A PUBLIC hospital which was paying €6,000 a week to a private hospital because its hi-tech scanner was lying idle will resume its own scanning next week.

HE TOOK on the ESB and won. Now he’s taking on Mary Harney and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to save his local hospital.

NURSES fighting health cutbacks have called off a work stoppage at a west Cork hospital today to ballot on new proposals.

A WALK-IN clinic which aims to treat people for minor injuries within an hour was officially opened by the Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has bowed to public pressure and extended the contract for a third consultant surgeon post at a north Cork hospital.

FURTHER to correspondence between the deputy general manager of Cork University Hospital and consultants in Mallow Hospital, as detailed recently in the Irish Examiner (April 4), I, too, wish to state my dissatisfaction with the proposal to curtail surgery hours, albeit possibly on a temporary basis, at Mallow General Hospital.

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.

TWO radiographers cannot be appointed to operate a €1.5 million CT scanner lying idle at Mallow Hospital in Co Cork for more than a year because of a recruitment ceiling, the state’s public spending watchdog was told yesterday.

PATIENTS are having to wait about 15 months for a routine MRI scan at Cork University Hospital while a CT scanner at Mallow Hospital in Co Cork promised by the Government four years ago is still lying idle.

IT has been reported that several general hospitals have had their budgets cut for “inefficiencies”.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has agreed to investigate why a life-saving CT scanner remains idle at a general hospital since last December.

A LINK with the long campaign that succeeded in having Mallow Hospital upgraded to double consultant status has been severed with the death of a woman who was centrally involved.

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.

Temple Street Children's Hospital A&E has been voted the best acute hospital in the country by patients and their relatives.

MALLOW hospital provides an excellent service for the people of north Cork. The population of the area is expanding rapidly, putting more strain on the hospital, particularly as Mallow is designated a hub town under the national spatial strategy.

A VOLUNTARY organisation has expressed anger and shock at the news that a long-awaited hospital project will not get funding this year.

THE Government has been accused of “starving Mallow General Hospital of adequate funding”, according to volunteers helping to support the facility financially.

THE needless death of a patient in Monaghan General Hospital (MGH) has caused national outrage. The current trawl for a scapegoat is misconceived, however.

Veteran Labour Party TD Joe Sherlock will not be standing in the next General Election, it emerged tonight.

Davy Russell will be out of action for 21 days after being knocked out in a fall at Cork on Sunday.