THE Head of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm has suggested that his organisation would benefit from an external review of its performance since its inception in 2005.

CANCER patients in the south of the country must travel to Dublin at their own expense to avail of highly specialised imaging equipment crucial in the management of the disease.

CANCER patients in the south of the country must travel to Dublin at their own expense to avail of highly specialised imaging equipment crucial in the management of the disease.

The HSE has been defending its record on operation cancellations, following the release of new figures obtained by Fine Gael.

WHY patients spend hours on trolleys and whether the Pope is a Catholic are rhetorical questions to which few expect answers.

CHANGES were made to the internal report into the death during childbirth of Garda Tania McCabe and her baby at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital two years ago after the manager of the HSE’s acute hospitals in the North East said he had “issues” with “nuances” in it.

THE Health Service Executive is denying that the country’s cancer tsar, Tom Keane, encountered serious problems in trying to kick-start the country’s reformed cancer programme and that the HSE tried to limit its success.

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.

The Irish Nurses Organisation has suspended a work-to-rule protest at Portiuncula Hospital in Co Galway after reaching an agreement with the National Hospitals Office and the HSE.

NOT a single record exists to explain why the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) decided to publish three reports on the cancer-screening crisis on the same day.

INVESTIGATIONS into the discovery of hundreds of dumped medical files at a former landfill outside Cork city will move to an adjacent piece of land next week.

THE man who headed the State’s probe into the misdiagnosis of a breast cancer patient was “surprised and disappointed” but not “horrified” when it revealed systemic mismanagement at two HSE hospitals.

TWO issues were at the heart of concerns raised about the mammograms taken at Portlaoise Hospital — the equipment used and the staff who used it.

A long-awaited report into the misdiagnosis of nine Midlands women for breast cancer will be published as soon as possible, the Tánaiste told the Dáil today.

THE man who headed up the National Hospitals Office has been replaced by a team of four people to help integrate hospital services.

SO, THE LADY is not for turning. Surprise, surprise.

UP TO half of the nation’s hospitals have diagnostic equipment which is past its recommended sell-by date, according to the union representing the majority of the country’s radiographers and radiation therapists.

HEALTH specialists have welcomed the appointment of 60 new consultant posts to hospitals that are making progress in tackling the A&E crisis.

AN INDEPENDENT audit of all organs retained in hospitals is being carried out by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

THE Health Service Executive has moved to fast-track a plan to double capacity at the kidney dialysis unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

MOST people do not believe that having private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals will improve healthcare in Ireland, a new online poll shows.

UNDER the co-location plan, a number of 100/150-bed commercially independent private hospitals will be built on the grounds of our larger public hospitals.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) today insisted patient care improved last year even though it admitted failing to spend nearly a fifth of its €555m budget.

APPROXIMATELY 200 women with abnormal smear test results, of which 80 are deemed clinically urgent, are waiting up to four months for follow-up examinations at Kerry General Hospital.

LIKE the expectant mother who fails to meet her due-date, the country’s newest maternity hospital failed to deliver on time.

HOSPITALS will have to qualify for an annual hygiene certificate under a new quality control system beginning in the new year.

A blitz of spot-checks will take place on the State's 52 acute hospitals to ensure cleanliness and hygiene are placed first in the facilities, it was claimed today.

FINE GAEL has accused the Health Service Executive (HSE) of engaging in doublespeak on hospital overspending.

THE Government has approved a €540 million capital investment programme for the Health Service Executive for 2006.

DOCTORS had adopted a "siege mentality" following recent medical controversies and needed to move away from that mind-set, the head of the Health Service Executive, Professor Brendan Drumm insisted yesterday.

The site for a new National Children’s Hospital will be chosen objectively by an expert task force, health service bosses said tonight.

A national ’hygiene tzar’ is needed to clean up hospitals and stop patients picking up infections like MRSA, an Oireachtas Committee heard today.

The Health Service Executive has announced improvements at Accident and Emergency units at three Dublin hospitals.

AN appropriate pay deal is in place for the top Health Service Executive (HSE) positions, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney insisted yesterday.

The deputy head of the Health Service Executive has tendered his resignation as part of a contractual dispute with the Department of Finance.

THE body count will continue to rise in Monaghan, community activists claimed last night, because the local hospital must continue to function without emergency surgery.

THE country’s dirtiest hospitals are laid bare in a damning report that shows widespread neglect of basic hygiene practices like hand-washing, bin-emptying and general cleaning.

A MAJOR rearrangement of hospital services was confirmed yesterday amid confusion about how patients and staff will be affected.

GUIDELINES that emphasise basic hand hygiene to stop the spread of the hospital superbug MRSA have been welcomed by lobby group Patient Focus.

Catherine Shanahan

Catherine Shanahan

Up to 12 smaller Irish hospitals would reportedly be unable to provide comprehensive acute care following the implementation of the Hanly Report.

The country’s first national hospital hygiene audit is to be carried out in July and August, it emerged today.

BRITISH-based consultants have been signed up by the Health Service Executive to carry out the first national independent hygiene audit of the health services.