HUNDREDS of elderly orthopaedic patients are being forced to wait as long as three years to be treated at one of the country’s leading hospitals.

A RADICAL overhaul of hospital services in Cork and Kerry which will reduce the number of round-the-clock emergency departments (EDs) to one per county is expected to be completed in just over three years.

A REVIEW is taking place into the provision of prosthetic limbs in the HSE South with plans to move amputation clinics from St Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork to the Mercy University Hospital.