Infection outbreak signs have been erected outside the emergency department at Cork University Hospital. No visitors are allowed into the busy unit.

Management at University Hospital Kerry has cancelled all elective surgeries University Hospital Kerry this week.

In a joint statement, the union and health authority say extra measures have now been put in place to improve bed capacity.

The HSE is to review the operation of a work permit scheme that allows foreign doctors to work here, on foot of warnings that it is too restrictive and threatening the survival of GP out-of-hours services.

Out-of-hours GP service, SouthDoc, may be forced to cut the number of its treatment centres because of funding pressures and doctor shortages.

Young vets are leaving Ireland in their droves due to archaic working conditions and poor pay.

Almost 1,000 people have signed a petition to help a Ring of Kerry village secure a doctor. A continuing GP service in Sneem and its surrounding area is at risk, with the village doctor, Patrick Malone, due to retire after 34 years, writes Anne Lucey.

Almost 1,000 people have signed a petition to help a Ring of Kerry village secure a doctor. A continuing GP service in Sneem and its surrounding area is at risk, with the village doctor, Patrick Malone, due to retire after 34 years.

Tony Twomey’s family felt abandoned by hospital staff in the wake his sudden death. They spoke to Catherine Shanahan in the hope of generating a debate about what hospitals can do to improve the supports available to traumatised next of kin

A sick animal can be treated quicker in some parts of Co Cork than a sick person, according to county councillors.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has described the record 612 patients on trolleys as “entirely predictable” and warned it could worsen.

A man died from a cardiac arrest after spending almost 10 hours on a trolley in the emergency department of one of the country’s busiest hospitals, an inquest heard.

The number of children aged under six referred to emergency departments (ED) by their doctor has jumped dramatically, and as much as 55% at one large GP co-op, according to its medical director.

The threat of families switching to a new doctor if their GP chooses to opt out of treating under-6s for free is likely to be one of the key deciding factors in whether doctors sign up.

A busy city centre hospital in Cork has shut its doors to visitors until midday today in an attempt to halt the spread of the winter vomiting bug.

Health Minister James Reilly, on a breakneck trip to the South-West for a number of pre-election duties yesterday, denied he was being "held back" by Fine Gael strategists because of a perceived lack of popularity.

Gardaí should get regular refresher courses in CPR, a jury recommended after an inquest yesterday into the death of a man who collapsed in a Garda station cell.

The jury at an inquest into the death of a toddler who fell from an upstairs window has urged the HSE to immediately publish the findings of an external review into the handling of the 999 call after the accident.

A father yesterday broke down as he told an inquest how he tried to comfort his baby son who had sustained horrific injuries after falling from an upstairs window of their home in Midleton in Co Cork.

Compensation awarded to a number of SouthDoc staff on foot of a pay cut will not now be paid after the GP co-op successfully appealed the award.

A US-based Irishwoman who had liposuction in Florida died from an aggressive flesh-eating infection days later while on a Christmas trip home.

A HSE ambulance may have passed the seriously injured toddler, Vakaris Martinaitis, as he was being rushed to hospital in a neighbour’s car under Garda escort.

A National Ambulance Service review into how an ambulance couldn’t be sent for a two-year-old boy who had fallen from a window will bring reassurance to people living in East Cork, according to the health minister.

Cork GAA legend, Kevin Hennessy, who drove a dying child to hospital has spoken of his shock when told there was noambulance available to come to his aid.

Fears are being raised about the lack of ambulance cover across Cork after a toddler died in hospital two days after falling from an upstairs window.