COMMUNITIES in Monaghan are pleading with the Health Service Executive to drop plans to downgrade smaller hospitals following the death of a two-week-old baby who had to endure a two-hour ambulance journey to Dublin because there was no local neo-natal intensive care unit.

SERIOUSLY ILL children who need emergency care, and women in labour, should not be sent to many of the country’s general hospitals, a report has warned.

THE birth of a baby in an ambulance while in transit between hospitals in Monaghan and Cavan yesterday highlights major flaws in the Hanly Report.

PUTTING a positive spin on Cavan General Hospital was not enough to convince people that patient care was as it should be at the hospital, Hospital Action TD Paudge Connolly said yesterday.

HEALTH board officials have insisted emergency treatment will continue at Cavan General Hospital despite leaked correspondence which calls into question the hospital's ability to provide the service given a staffing crisis.

The author of a report on the future of Monaghan General Hospital says that a new policy on the future of maternity services there is being finalised.

Members of the Irish Nurses Organisation at Monaghan General Hospital have urged the Minister for Health Micheál Martin to implement fully the Bonner report on maternity services at the hospital.

THE North Eastern Health Board wants Minister Micheál Martin to provide funding for a midwifery-led unit at Monaghan General Hospital.

THE report into the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone late last year stresses that a midwifery-led maternity unit should be provided at Monaghan General Hospital, as recommended by a previous review group.

The Bonner Report into the future development of Monaghan Hospital has been published this evening.

It is understood that the report into the death of newborn baby Bronagh Livingstone in Co Monaghan in December of last year has been given to Health Minister Micheál Martin.

Another baby has been born in an ambulance in Co Monaghan.

REPORTS in this country are used by the Government and its agencies to long-finger apportionment of blame, and the more serious the issue, the longer the delay.

THE report ordered by Health Minister Micheal Martin into the death of Roisín Ruddle may not be published in full because of concerns for the privacy of the tragic toddler’s distressed parents.

The dire warning from the master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street is chillingly stark: overstretched services means cutting corners, which puts safety at issue and compromises patient care.

CAMPAIGNERS calling for the restoration of full maternity services to Monaghan General Hospital have accused the Government of playing Russian roulette with the lives of mothers and babies.

A REPORT looking at ways to prevent the deaths of people denied access to healthcare services because of cuts in local hospitals is expected to be on the Health Minister’s desk in days.

THE grandfather of premature baby Bronagh Livingstone, who died last December, has called on Health Minister Micheál Martin to resign.

THE surgeon who was forced to cancel life-saving surgery on Róisín Ruddle revealed last night the nursing care needed for her operation to proceed would have cost less than €1,000.

A MATERNITY unit may not be built at Tralee General Hospital unless almost a third of Kerry women stop going to Cork and Limerick to have their babies, it was claimed yesterday.

The grandfather of baby Bronagh Livingstone says he will not accept stalling tactics from the North Eastern Health Board.

The grandfather of the premature baby who died after her mother was turned away from Monaghan Hospital has called for the resignation of the chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board.

The North Eastern Health Board is considering the establishment of a 'flying squad' to assist with emergency births following the death of a premature baby whose mother was turned away from Monaghan Hospital last month.

The North Eastern Health Board is in talks this evening about the death of a premature baby who was born in an ambulance after her mother was turned away from Monaghan Hospital.

FEW institutions of State are more politicised, more cumbersome, more bureaucratic or more fláthúlach with taxpayers’ money than the 11 boards which run the country’s health service.

The North-Eastern Health Board is to hold a special meeting next month to consider the case of a baby girl who died in Cavan Hospital after her expectant mother was turned away from Monaghan Hospital.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), has welcomed the publication of the independent review into the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone and joined the baby's grandfather in calling for the resignation of the North Eastern Health Board.

The family of the premature baby who died last week when her mother gave birth in an ambulance having been refused treatment at Monaghan General Hospital, have reacted angrily to the publication of an independent report into her death.

An independent report into the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone has found that her mother, Denise, should not have been transferred to Cavan Hospital, following her arrival in the late stages of delivery at Monaghan General.

THE conflicting versions of events in the two reports into the death of premature baby Bronagh Livingstone were deeply disturbing, opposition parties said last night.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin last night rejected attempts by the North Eastern Health Board to defend its treatment of premature baby Bronagh Livingstone after an independent report said the wrong decisions were taken prior to her death.

Action must be taken to ensure there is no repeat of a situation in which a baby girl died after her mother was refused treatment at a hospital, Minister for Health Micheál Martin said today.

THE family of tragic baby Bronagh Livingstone will be told tomorrow the reasons for the decisions surrounding her birth and death.

THE North Eastern Health Board has said expectant mothers should not go to Monaghan General Hospital in an emergency relating to their pregnancy.

The Health Minister, Micheal Martin, will hold a meeting with the family of the Monaghan new-born who died after her mother was turned away from Monaghan Hospital last week.

Neither recriminations nor Dáil debates will restore the life of Bronagh Livingstone, the new-born ba

MORE people will die needlessly all over the country if crucial services at smaller regional hospitals are lost due to health cutbacks, campaigners in Monaghan said last night.