The HSE has admitted staff morale is low and that there is no accountability structure for clinicians within its acute hospital network in the Mid-West.

A senior consultant has described plans by the HSE to establish a trust to oversee the operation of six hospitals in the Mid-West as “rampant managerialism” and “guaranteed to fail”.

A complete ban on smoking in hospitals and on adjoining grounds in the Mid-West comes into force this Thursday.

THE HSE has a stubborn unthinking, uncaring mind-set of “plough on regardless” in relation to the transfer of services from hospitals in Ennis and Nenagh to the Mid-West Regional in Limerick, a committee representing the GPs of north Tipperary and Clare has claimed.