YES, I too would like a referendum on our health service as Dr Christine O’Malley and Dr Bertie Daly suggest (Letters, June 27).

DEMOCRATIC deficit? Lack of transparency and accountability? Disconnection between bureaucrats and public? Yes, the HSE has a lot in common with the EU. Here are some issues that consumers should reflect on.

Fury and concern were today expressed by doctors and medical groups that confidential medical records were dumped and ended up lying in a field.

DOCTORS will go public today to highlight how funding and staffing cuts are threatening their town’s hospital.

WE write in the aftermath of a death foretold, the unnecessary death of a young Kilkenny mother from cancer.

FORMER Health Minister Michael Noonan said any closure would make a bad A&E situation even worse.

UNDER the co-location plan, a number of 100/150-bed commercially independent private hospitals will be built on the grounds of our larger public hospitals.

THE Labour party claims that the plan to develop co-located private hospitals on State lands will result in loss of revenue from insurance companies of €145 million.

DOCTORS at a Tipperary hospital depend on a weekday-only taxi service to transport MRSA swabs for analysis to Limerick.

A CO MAYO coroner has described as “alarming” the growing number of alcohol-related deaths in young women.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) today called for realism not rhetoric in reform of the health service.

THE health service can never be properly rebuilt until the 3,000 acute hospital beds stripped from the system in the 1980s are replaced, doctors insisted yesterday.

THE spat between BUPA and VHI over risk equalisation is a storm in a teacup. It will not have any affect on patient care.

DOCTORS are worried over the delay in establishing a fully operational independent nursing home inspectorate.

The Government was today called on to tackle the obesity epidemic in Ireland.

A KERRY-BASED female obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Mary McCaffrey, is expected to be elected president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) at a national council meeting today.

DOCTORS and patients have sharply disagreed on the usefulness of having a second hygiene audit in the country’s 46 acute hospitals.

Creeping privatisation of Ireland’s healthcare system will put profits before patients, it will be claimed today.

DOCTORS’ and nurses’ unions are backing a nationwide campaign to halt the drive towards privatising the State’s healthcare system.

The chronic overcrowding plaguing the country’s hospitals will not be solved with private care units providing beds for the public, it was claimed today.

A BUSY acute hospital last night disputed a claim that medical staff had to treat patients in ambulances yesterday because there was no room for them in the Accident and Emergency department.

A group of the country's most senior medical experts today launched an attack against the Government’s controversial Hanly report.

THE National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) which has paid out millions of euro to private hospitals for treating patients on public waiting lists is refusing to reveal which hospitals are getting the money.

FOR nine years public health doctors have been looking for a structured out-of-hours service to protect the health of the Irish people.