Latest: Naas General Hospital has confirmed that its Emergency Department (ED) reopened at 9pm this evening, with the Department now receiving both walk-in attendances and ambulance admissions.

Gardaí have been called in by the HSE to investigate claims of illegal drug use by ambulance personnel.

Both Siptu and the body representing ambulance staff have demanded urgent action following a review of the National Ambulance Service which highlighted a range of shortcomings and targets it said were unachievable.

An ambulance transporting a young patient from Donegal to Dublin broke down outside Letterkenny, so another vehicle had to be called to continue the journey.

The organisation representing ambulance personnel has said there should be a charge for people who misuse ambulances by calling them out unnecessarily.

Anyone who calls 999 seeking emergency ambulance care may no longer be automatically taken to hospital if they are genuinely ill as the under-resourced service cannot cope with demand. 

3pm is the worst time to fall ill in Dublin.

The HSE has been accused of spying on its ambulance staff for at least five years after it emerged that internal phone calls between paramedics are recorded — with some files later used in disciplinary cases.

The director of the National Ambulance Service Martin Dunne admits there are issues that need to be reviewed.

Ambulance crews have called for an independent “capacity review” of the service’s equipment and personnel levels over fears chronic gaps in the system are causing needless patient deaths.

The National Ambulance Service Representative Association said the service is under-resourced and "running on empty".

An independent investigation into concerns that ambulances are arriving dangerously late to call-outs because of chronic service shortages has been brought forward three months due to the serious issues involved.

The HSE’s repeated failure to meet life-saving ambulance target times is set to be examined by the country’s independent medical watchdog.

The Health Service Executive is denying that an ambulance was not available to help a dying man in Co. Kildare.

The head of the group which represents paramedics has accused the Government of playing Russian roulette with peoples’ lives through its reorganisation of the ambulance service.

Concerns are being raised about a shortage of paramedic staff and a potential knock-on effect on patient safety.

It has emerged that a Garda Sergeant in County Meath had to drive an ambulance with an injured child to hospital last week, because of a shortage of paramedic staff on duty.

The National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA) has said it cannot guarantee that patients will not be affected by their work-to-rule action in protest at the extension to the Croke Park Agreement.

Psychiatric nurses have become the latest frontline public sector workers to “turn off the goodwill” tap in protest at the measures proposed under Croke Park II.

Ambulance personnel are joining gardaí in withdrawing voluntary cover from public events in protest against the Croke Park deal.

CALLS for a radical overhaul of the health system have been prompted by news that a record 569 patients were languishing on hospital trolleys yesterday.

PATIENTS could lose their lives unless steps are taken to ease the beds crisis which has left 569 people on trolleys, it was claimed last night.

Firefighters and paramedics today joined forces with psychiatric nurses to form a new trade union for frontline staff in the public service.