HEALTH Service Executive staff in Galway have been given leave to attend the Galway Races despite reductions in staffing levels and cutbacks in frontline services across the organisation.

AN orthopaedic surgeon has claimed he will only be able to operate “once or twice more” this year at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway because of plans to suspend all orthopaedic surgery for four months.

AN internal hospital report calling for infection control improvements to prevent a repeat of last year’s deadly clostridium difficile outbreak at University Hospital Galway (UHG) has yet to be implemented six months after it was concluded.

ELDERLY patients with dementia in long term care are being over-prescribed antipsychotic drugs to compensate for a lack of resources, according to an expert in elderly care.