CANCER patients in the south-east travelling to Dublin for radiotherapy treatment have the worst transport options in the country.

THE senior health board executive who first queried the legal basis of charging long-stay patients said yesterday it was “immaterial” that then Health Minister Micheál Martin was absent when the issue was discussed at a crucial meeting.

HEALTH boards paid out €85 million last year to keep just 600 children in residential care, new figures have revealed.

GENERAL hospital patients are being screened for alcohol and drug use under a pilot project aimed at targeting misuse at an early stage.

A 73-YEAR-OLD Co Waterford woman has made an emotional appeal for reassurances that the State will take care of her profoundly mentally and physically handicapped son when she dies.

MORE than a quarter of elderly patients and a number of staff have been infected with the winter vomiting bug at a Waterford hospital.

Fireworks and bonfires will endanger children’s safety over the next week. Irish Examiner reporters look at the measures being taken to prevent accidents.

A MOTHER, who was going to jail, sent her two-year-old son to Wales with strangers rather than place him in care.

A DELEGATION from Waterford City Council has expressed disappointment at the refusal by Health Minister Micheál Martin to advance the case for provision of radiotherapy services to the south-east.

AN activity scheme aimed at tackling childhood obesity has been launched in the south east as it emerged one-in-three youngsters there is overweight and one in twelve obese.

An activity scheme aimed at tackling childhood obesity has been launched in the south east as it emerged one in three youngsters is overweight.

OVERWEIGHT children are likely to have four or more televisions in their home, with some having up to six, a study has shown.

CHILDREN are becoming couch potatoes by watching too much television, playing video games and avoiding exercise, a survey has revealed.

THE mother of an eight-year-old special needs boy who died in a buggy provided by his health board says she has yet to receive an apology from the authority.

A SECOND patient has picked up a potentially fatal respiratory disease from a shower head or water source in a hospital bathroom.

The South Eastern Health Board has confirmed that a shower-head at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny was the probable source of an outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease at the hospital earlier this year.

HEALTH officials in the South Eastern Health Board area are investigating the sudden death of a six-year-old boy who was waiting to be seen by doctors at Waterford Regional Hospital.

THE number of underage drinkers treated for alcohol addiction in two health boards has more than trebled in three years, according to new reports.

PATIENTS have been forced to wait for treatment on trolleys in a busy general hospital while its recently built geriatric unit lies idle due to staff shortages.

A study in the South Eastern Health Board area has found that paracetamol is responsible for almost a third of all overdose patients admitted to A&E departments in the region.

A HOSPITAL which confirmed it is treating an elderly patient for Legionnaires’ disease says it will know by the end of next week if the potentially-fatal infection was contracted in-house or in the community.

FORMER Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, who resigned over his handling of sex abuse allegations against the late Fr Sean Fortune, is expected to give evidence to the inquiry into sex abuse in the diocese later this month.

A BRITISH social worker who asked not to have to deal with a client known to be a dangerous paedophile and living near his family was told “in Ireland we have to live and work in dangerous conditions ... get used to that”.

UNDERSPENDING health board bosses were accused yesterday of passing the blame on to the Department of Health for their failure to manage finances properly.

CIRCUMCISION services could be available on non-essential, non-medical grounds in children’s hospitals around the country by next year under a new plan being considered by the Department of Health and the country’s major health boards.

THE South Eastern Health Board (SEHB) has defended using money from psychiatric patients’ personal funds to purchase furniture on the basis that it was done with their consent.

A MAN whose wife died of legionnaires’ disease while in hospital has heard nothing from his health board almost six months after the tragedy.

A HEALTH board that is furious it was passed over for long-awaited cancer facilities is to meet today to discuss its next move.

A HEALTH BOARD, which has been criticised for failing to provide non-medical circumcision, is to meet next month to discuss improving general services.

A HEALTH board says it has been forced to call in the Defence Forces several times in the past 10 weeks because of industrial action by ambulance staff.

MEN are being asked why they don’t like going to the doctor, if they’ve ever had unprotected sex and to consider how they could be cutting their lives short by smoking, drinking and taking other risks.

STAFF and residents at one of the country’s largest private nursing homes have welcomed a temporary lifeline from their regional health board.

Unitech Systems, a leading technology consultancy, has carried out an innovative IT solutions project at the South Eastern Health Board (SEHB).

FOOD and medical supplies are being bought with petty cash at a Wexford nursing home beset with financial difficulties.

THE health service will come under more pressure into the future following research which shows the older population is set to double in the next 30 years.

DISGRUNTLED midwives at Wexford General Hospital meet today to consider industrial action in a last-ditch effort to force hospital management to employ extra staff.

MEMBERS of the Defence Forces medical corps have been drafted in to take over from ambulance crews who have refused to provide night cover in parts of the South-East.

THE lives of mothers and babies are put at risk every day because one of the country’s busiest regional maternity hospitals doesn’t have enough midwives, nurses warned yesterday.

A HOSPITAL consultant placed on “administrative leave” following an alleged fracas with a fellow consultant will be the subject of a second probe.

DISGRUNTLED nurses at a hospital for the elderly are refusing to make beds, carry out portering duties and other non-nursing tasks in a dispute over staffing levels.

MOTHERS with newborn babies and patients who had just undergone surgery were among those who fled their beds for the car park of Waterford Regional Hospital yesterday morning, after a hoax bomb alert.

UNREST brewing at one of the south east’s busiest hospitals could bring to 10 the number of industrial disputes at hospitals around the country.

A HEALTH board has ordered an independent review into the handling of a case involving one of its employees who was accused of sexually abusing children.

AMBULANCE crews are refusing to transfer non-emergency patients from one of the country’s largest nursing homes as a two-month-long picket by former staff outside the centre continues.