A group of 495 people will today lie on the street outside the Dáil to represent the highest number of patients lying on trolleys on a single day this year.

NURSES have been accused of misleading people by saying there are more empty hospital beds than patients on trolleys.

LOBBYISTS campaigning against the downgrading of small hospitals are considering entering an alliance with new patients’ group Patients Together.

UP to 1.5 million people face a further hike in private health insurance costs on foot of Government plans to increase the cost of a private hospital bed by 25%.

A patient support group is holding a candlelight vigil outside the Dáil this evening, on the eve of the publication of the Budget estimates.

ELLEN COGAVIN was a Fine Gael candidate in the Dunshaughlin area for Meath County Council in last June’s local elections. She is a senior nurse in a nearby hospital and health was probably one of the issues she campaigned on.

A NEW patients’ lobby group is disappointed the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has no quick-fix solution to the accident and emergency crisis.

Minister for Health Tánaiste Mary Harney has warned that there are no quick-fix solutions to the overcrowding crisis in A&E departments.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has disputed a claim made by a new patients' lobby group that the Government has closed 400 hospital beds.