A band of people led by the sisters of a farmer who died in an ambulance on its way to Cork left the front door of University Hospital Waterford yesterday and walked along the last road he travelled on.

The HSE’s national recruitment service has been asked to prioritise staffing a new €2.3m respiratory ward, funded by a charity, that remains closed at Cork University Hospital (CUH) due to nurse shortages.

The need for a new hospital in Cork to replace two centuries-old facilities and to take some of the pressure off Cork University Hospital (CUH) remains a key outstanding recommendation of a report on the reconfiguration of acute hospital services, published five years ago.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has appointed chief executives to the six new hospital groups, with all the appointments taken from within existing health services.