There is as yet no clarity around the “interim arrangements” the HSE said it is examining in order to address intolerable conditions in the mortuary at University Hospital Waterford (UHW).

Professor Helen Whelton, head of the College of Medicine and Health (CoMH), UCC

The head of community healthcare in Cork and Kerry has promised to investigate claims that a child with special needs was unable to attend school because she had no nursing support.

Poor cleaning of reusable bedpans and failure to test water outlets for the bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s Disease were among the multiple infection-control failures that left patients at University Hospital Kerry (UHK) exposed to significant risk.

“It’s no more than the kids deserve,” said Joe Browne, founder of the charity that has single-handedly transformed cystic fibrosis facilities for both children and adults attending Cork University Hospital.

The lack of a dedicated obstetric theatre in University Hospital Kerry (UHK) poses the greatest risk to patient safety and care, according to documents obtained by the Irish Examiner.

A new clinical director for maternity services is to be appointed to the South/South West Hospital group where more than 4,200 women are awaiting outpatient appointments for gynaecological services.

Health Minister Simon Harris is to meet with consultants at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) in the new year amid fears that women face delayed cancer diagnoses on foot of difficulties accessing timely gynaecological services.

If you’re looking for its Achilles heel, you won’t find it in the labour wards or the neonatal unit. But are colossal gynaecology waiting lists threatening the reputation of Ireland’s newest maternity hospital? Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan says consultants are at breaking point and women’s lives are being put at risk

The HSE’s national recruitment service has been asked to prioritise staffing a new €2.3m respiratory ward, funded by a charity, that remains closed at Cork University Hospital (CUH) due to nurse shortages.

The 10 hospitals in the south/south west hospital group will have to collectively generate €3 million every week this year in order to break even by the end of 2015.

The HSE South continues to pay taxis and couriers to transport blood samples, breast milk and human tissue even though a motorcycle charity has been lobbying for almost a year to provide the service free of charge.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has appointed chief executives to the six new hospital groups, with all the appointments taken from within existing health services.

A row between Cork University Hospital and Cystic Fibrosis charity Build4Life over the ring-fencing of beds threatened the building of a new €2.3m ward. Build4Life founder Joe Browne is happy to draw a line under the saga as agreement is finally reached

Efforts to broker an agreement that would end a row between a Cork hospital and a cystic fibrosis (CF) charity over the ring-fencing of beds are to continue next week after talks last night ended without a breakthrough.

One of the country’s leading campaigners for improved cystic fibrosis services has urged a charity that raised funds for a Cork hospital not to hand over the money until beds are ringfenced for CF patients.

The head of a cystic fibrosis charity has called for the appointment of an independent expert to help resolve a row over bed designation for CF patients at a Cork hospital.

A doctor had to inject an 83-year-old man with morphine so his son could drive him to hospital after the pensioner was refused transport in a public ambulance.

A farmer who sued claiming he never got his wife’s brain back from Cork University Hospital following the postmortem after she died has lost his High Court action.

Child health screening and school immunisation programmes could be under threat as a direct result of deepening health service budget cuts.

CANCER patients in the south of the country must travel to Dublin at their own expense to avail of highly specialised imaging equipment crucial in the management of the disease.

CANCER patients in the south of the country must travel to Dublin at their own expense to avail of highly specialised imaging equipment crucial in the management of the disease.

THREE of the four new regional directors for the revamped HSE have already been selected for the highly coveted posts – all of whom are already existing health service officials.

PLANS to reconfigure cancer services under the direction of cancer ‘tzar’ Prof Tom Keane have angered a number of hospital consultants, among them cancer specialists.

A SEVERELY physically and mentally disabled man is to lose three quarters of his disability allowance towards the cost of his respite care.

THE Government is “deliberately delaying” publication of a report into the future of Bantry General Hospital until after the local elections – “to save Fianna Fáil party blushes and FF county council seats”.

THE Health Service Executive has turned down a call for a 24-hour accident and emergency & unit for a leading tourist town.

THE head of hospital services in the Health Service Executive (HSE) South has refused to rule out a downgrading of emergency department and surgical services in the region on a par with those being implemented in the Mid-West.

HEALTH service management have insisted Mercy University Hospital’s (MUH) multi-million-euro accident and emergency (A&E) department — which has lain idle for 19 months — will be opened “on a phased basis” within three weeks.

PLANS by the HSE to transfer Cork and Kerry’s breast cancer services to one site at Cork University Hospital (CUH) could be on ice as management at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) have stated that discussions have yet to take place on any relocation.

THE opening of the €5 million A&E in Cork has been thrown into further doubt after the HSE chief executive said the city has too many emergency treatment centres.

A SENIOR Health Service Executive official has admitted he was “flabbergasted” by the discovery of thousands of patients’ medical notes dumped at a disused landfill and confirmed further excavations are being carried out in the area to see if there are more.

A U-TURN is on the cards as the Health Service Executive plans to open, on a 24-hour basis in July, a €5 million A&E at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has bowed to public pressure and extended the contract for a third consultant surgeon post at a north Cork hospital.

PATIENTS are having to wait about 15 months for a routine MRI scan at Cork University Hospital while a CT scanner at Mallow Hospital in Co Cork promised by the Government four years ago is still lying idle.

THE highly virulent winter vomiting bug has led to a crisis at one of the country’s biggest hospitals.

PATIENTS will suffer because of plans by the Health Service Executive to delay filling critical frontline posts, hospital consultants warned yesterday.

PEOPLE visiting sick relatives and friends at Cork University Hospital (CUH) had to fork out nearly €2 million in parking charges last year.

A SPECIALIST dietician for children with diabetes in Cork was finally appointed yesterday, almost a year after the post was promised.

ROBYN BUCKLEY is one of the lucky ones.

MORE than 8,500 people are waiting to see specialists, according to waiting list figures for one of the country’s largest hospitals.

THE families of four Dutch people killed in a plane crash in the Knockmealdown Mountains 20 years ago made the sad journey back to The Vee yesterday to attend a memorial Mass.

THERE is a real danger disputes in the health service will spiral out of control, the Labour Party warned yesterday.