Health Minister James Reilly may have to rethink the controversial €100 emergency department charge after it emerged up to half of the bills are sent to patients who are exempt from payment.

The country’s leading health insurers have announced a series of cash-saving offers to lure back young people — while side-stepping price hikes for the companies themselves.

The Minister for Health James Reilly has said no acute hospital will close as a result of the reorganisation of hospitals.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has recorded a 103% rise since 2007 in the number of patients on trolleys at a time when 2,279 hospital beds remain closed.

Ministers have defended planned upgrades to hospitals in their constituencies which have been fast tracked by colleague James Reilly, the health minister.

Seriously ill children sent to emergency departments are not being treated away from adult patients, including many who are violent and drunk, a HSE report claims.

Health Minister James Reilly, the secretary general of the Department of Health, and the head of the HSE have assured consultants at Waterford Regional Hospital it will retain key services such as cancer care, cardiology, and trauma care.

Public hospitals have spent over €3.2m on debt collectors to hunt down failed patient payments in just seven years.

Hospitals in Munster were €39.81m in the red by the halfway point this year, with none able to stay within budget just months after a €48.94m cut to their funds.

Hospitals need to tighten their budgets, but at what cost, asks Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

THE son of Evelyn Joel said he had seldom spoken to his mother in the months leading to her death.

AN inquest into the death of a man whose defective pacemaker failed on a flight to France heard a warning had been issued by the manufacturer four months earlier, but the hospital failed to inform him.

SERIOUSLY ill children were forced to wait more than half a day on emergency department trolleys because of closed beds, service downgrading and staff shortages at one of the country’s largest hospitals.

AS many as 66 people were waiting on trolleys at Cork’s two major hospitals yesterday, a figure on a par with the worst period of the winter emergency department crisis.

THE mother of snow baby triplets who arrived into the world eight weeks early has said they might not have made it but for the fantastic work of staff at their local hospital.

HOSPITAL emergency departments are struggling to cope with serious staff shortages, resulting in some shifts being left uncovered and causing havoc to existing quality and safety standards.

A WEXFORD-MAN delivered his baby on the hard shoulder of the N11 on Monday night.

A woman was killed and four other people injured in a car crash, gardaí said today.

WATERFORD Regional Hospital is the only hospital in the south-east with a clinically viable Emergency Department (ED), according to a leaked report.

NONE of the 10 hospitals in the south and south-east is delivering acute care in line with international standards, according to a leaked report.

Wexford General Hospital has closed its doors to visitors today after it revealed that 12 patients and eight members of staff have contracted the Winter Vomiting Bug.

ALL nurses in accident and emergency departments should get suicide awareness and skills training, as well as help in identifying suicidal behaviour, a new report recommends.

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) last night called for the indefinite cancellation of all non-emergency surgery.

Neglect and filth marked Evelyn Joel's passing, writes Catherine Shanahan.

A massive €12bn spending package for the Department of Health will make a visible difference to frontline services, it was claimed tonight.

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

BADLY managed hospitals where patients’ health is not improved by high treatment costs have been fined €7.5 million.

IT is difficult to reconcile the league table of Irish hospitals with the reality of the health service.

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.

CHRONIC weekend overcrowding at a Wexford A&E unit led to patients being turned away, forcing them into an 80 mile round trip for treatment.

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.

A man's body has been found off the Coast of Co Wexford. The alarm was raised when Fethard Lifeboat recovered from the water off Slade near Hook Head.