DUBLIN could be on the brink of a TB epidemic, a medical expert has warned.

A nurse in a Dublin hospital was suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation, it emerged today.

THE Government has yet to decide on the location of the country’s first specialist unit for treating victims of a bio-terrorist attack - almost two years after an expert group said such a facility should be established “without delay”.

Peamount Hospital has agreed to reverse its decision to terminate the contract of its medical director, Professor Luke Clancy.

MUCH has been written and spoken about the proposed changes at Peamount Hospital in Dublin.

UP TO seven patients, some with TB, have been refused admission to Peamount Hospital since last Wednesday, despite being referred there for treatment by doctors.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin deserves the accolades that he has received for having the courage to implement the smoking ban. This has attracted enormous international attention, as other countries evaluate the implications of the ban here.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has called on Health Minister Micheál Martin to overturn a decision by Dublin’s Peamount Hospital not to admit a highly-infectious TB patient.

Peamount Hospital has reportedly refused to admit an eastern European man suffering from highly-infectious tuberculosis, despite the fact that the hospital is still the national specialist referral centre for TB.

Fine Gael deputy spokesman on Health, Dan Neville, today said he feared the termination of the contract of Peamount Hospital’s Medical Director would spark the closure of the TB unit there.

The Irish Nurses Organisation is warning of a TB threat if patients treated at Peamount Hospital are transferred to already overcrowded general hospitals.

The Green Party has expressed its opposition to the Government’s plans to close Peamount Hospital in Dublin, Ireland’s main TB treatment centre.

The Irish Nurses Organisation is due to hold a demonstration outside Peamount Hospital in Dublin today to protest plans to stop TB treatment services.

NURSES have warned of a TB threat if patients treated in a specialist clinic are transferred to already overcrowded general hospitals.