Two female private investigators who pretended to be HSE and VEC officials were able to blag personal data from other civil servants to help credit unions find members who had defaulted on their loans.

Five family doctor practices each received HSE payments totalling over €600,000 in 2012, including two practices that received payments in excess of €700,000.

More than 70 of the country’s top-earning doctors shared €34.37 million from payments received through the medical card system in 2012, new figures show.

Health Minister James Reilly is under growing pressure to explain where massive budget cuts to the medical card scheme will fall amid fears that 100,000 people will lose the entitlement.

The brain may be better suited to a split cycle of sleep, reports Richard Fitzpatrick.

THE Health Service Executive has spent more than €100 million on predominantly private security services for its facilities over the last six years.

MORE than five million prescriptions for powerful drugs to treat depression, psychosis, anxiety or lack of sleep are being written every year, costing in excess of €110 million, official figures have revealed.

THE Department of Health and the HSE are developing new policy to improve practices around the overuse of benzodiazepines (BZDs) within the health system.

THE prescribing of sleeping tablets has reached record levels, falling just below common cholesterol and diabetes drugs, HSE figures have shown.

THE Health Service Executive’s latest performance report indicates that it will have come in under budget at the end of 2010.

Two dentists have secured High Court injunctions preventing the HSE from implementing changes to the scheme which allows medical card holders avail of dental treatments free of charge pending a full determination of the dispute.

TWO dentists have started High Court proceedings aimed at preventing the HSE from implementing changes to the scheme which allows medical cardholders avail of dental treatments free of charge.

Two dentists have commenced High Court proceedings aimed at preventing the HSE from implementing changes to the scheme which allows medical card holders avail of dental treatments free of charge.

PAYMENTS to GPs under the medical card scheme and other State subsidies more than trebled in the past decade, reaching a record €440 million last year.

PAYMENTS to GPs under the medical card scheme and other state subsidies more than trebled in the past decade, reaching a record €440 million last year.