Waiting times for the country’s only two public weight treatment services are over two-and-a-half years, with almost 1,500 waiting simply to get an outpatient appointment.

One of Ireland’s leading experts on obesity said he is ‘gobsmacked’ by the results of a ban on sugar-laden fizzy drinks for under-age players introduced five years ago by a soccer club in Sligo.

The latest tool to help women achieve the perfect hour-glass figure is the waist trainer, made popular by Kim Kardashian. Deirdre Reynolds tests it out.

Patients waiting for potentially life-saving gastric band surgery look set to have it done in Britain under a HSE scheme for treatment abroad.

A man has died after losing control of his motorcycle in Co Wicklow early this morning.

Potentially lifesaving gastric bypass operations are on hold because of a HSE decision to limit the number of procedures it funds.

Why are our waistlines expanding by the year? Clodagh Finn turns to health author Sarah Boseley to find out what’s wrong with the way we eat today.

A three-year-old boy was among five lives lost on the roads over the bank holiday weekend.

Plating food has taken on a new meaning for some schoolchildren who are learning about healthier eating. A group of parents in Dublin have been promoting a ‘Portion Plate,’ which helps children learn about portion sizes and the components of a healthy, balanced meal.

Hundreds of people with potentially serious health conditions whose hospital appointments have been delayed for more than a year were accidentally wiped off a waiting list due to a HSE “administrative error”.

Hospital chiefs across the country have been ordered to crack down on sloppy hygiene among medics which is putting tens of thousands of patients at risk of infection.

Doctors working in emergency departments have warned of reduced opening hours and longer waiting times for patients amid fears of a 50% shortfall in junior doctor numbers next July.

The number of cancelled hospital operations and procedures has almost halved since Health Minister James Reilly’s appointment — but still stands at 13 a day.

The country’s leading expert on obesity has revealed that five times more schoolgirls drive to school than ride a bicycle.

Sven Schubert sought medical advice when he was 46 stone. He was referred to the weight management service in St Columcille’s, Co Dublin.

More than 130 severely obese adults are on a waiting list for weight-loss surgery at a public hospital that can only do about 25 such procedures a year.

MORE than €18m will be slashed off the budgets of 17 poor performing hospitals this year.

A TOP Cork hotel has launched a new calorie counting menu for health conscious diners.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is likely to come under further pressure today after the Health Information and Quality Authority released a timeline of its reports on regional hospitals.

THE bitter political row over cutbacks at smaller hospitals widened last night as it emerged Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore also made broken election pledges to protect Roscommon services.

HEALTH chiefs have identified a further ten hospitals with “significant risk” issues for patients.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has signalled further turmoil lies ahead over the future of smaller hospitals as campaigners stepped up their protest against cutbacks at Roscommon Hospital.

UP TO 327,000 children are either obese or overweight and experts have warned Ireland is heading for a US-style epidemic where 33% of children have weight problems.

A MAN died after consuming the head shop drug MDPV, which has a similar effect to cocaine, but is 20 to 30 times more potent.

BUCKETS of butter-coated popcorn, litres of fizzy drinks and an array of melt-in-your-mouth chocolates may be central to most cinema trips, but the treat could soon become a thing of the past.

Deadly obesity is ballooning in Ireland while a hospital equipped to treat dangerously overweight patients has no available beds, it was revealed today.

A 70-year-old Bray resident has gone on trial for assaulting his elderly female housemate with a hammer causing her serious harm.

CONSIDERABLE improvements have been made in relation to hygiene at one of the hospitals assessed in the first two individual hospital hygiene quality reports by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

SURGERIES for morbidly obese people here could cost the public almost €6 million every 12 months within the next decade, it has been claimed.

OVERWEIGHT and obese people in Ireland are more likely to be divorced, separated or unemployed, research has revealed.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney yesterday insisted that hospital-acquired infection is being tackled.

A MUTATED superbug blamed for up to 50 deaths in Britain is present in two Irish hospitals.

Cancer deaths will not come down for several years despite a major overhaul of services, the Republic’s new cancer chief warned today.

THE danger of MRSA was highlighted yesterday after a coroner’s court was told about inadequacies for the treatment of such infection at a Dublin hospital.

Two new centres for the morbidly obese are to be opened next year at Mercy University Hospital in Cork and University College Hospital in Galway. While these should, of course, be warmly welcomed, people should at the same time ask why this has taken so long?

OPERATORS of a helpline for eating disorders get as many calls from food addicts as they do from anorexics, it was revealed yesterday.

THE country’s only health board-funded weight management clinic cannot give appointments to 200 people awaiting treatment for obesity because of pressure on services.

GARDAÍ are investigating the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a man found dead at his home the morning after he was caught up in a row outside a pub.

Nurses at a Dublin hospital have voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over staffing cuts.