Health Minister Mary Harney was facing calls today to explain the lack of regulation of companies caring for older people in their home and the shocking treatment some of their staff engage in.

Frontline healthcare will be severely hit if Health Minister Mary Harney oversees up to €1bn in cuts, critics said today.

CONSUMERS face a double blow today with the introduction of new energy costs and medication levies.

The public is today being asked for their opinion on new standards and guidelines for the safety of patients in the health system.

ALMOST 10 years after a strategy was launched to deal with the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance in Ireland, Ennis General Hospital is set to become Ireland’s first fully SARI compliant facility for inpatient accommodation.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says the Government has to stop ignoring its calls to lift the moratorium on recruitment.

ON our watch, in our care, Daniel McAnaspie was kicked around, killed and dumped in a ditch in like a stray dog. But a child – mentioned anonymously and aspirationally in the 1916 proclamation.

FINE GAEL has said urgent legislation is needed to ensure no new drugs could be sold in head shops without the approval of food or medicine authorities.

WHERE, one would have to wonder, did this flurry of ideological activity, with no mandate, come from?

Cathal Magee is to be announced as the new chief executive of the Health Service Executive.

THE Irish Thalidomide Association has described as ‘derisory’ Government support measures for the survivors of the Thalidomide drug in Ireland.

As many as 1,600 jobs have been lost in community pharmacies in the past nine months, according to new research.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan caused uproar in the Dáil yesterday when she accused the opposition of indulging in “political opportunism” over the Tallaght Hospital X-ray scandal.

SURELY the child protection crisis is as important as any the health service has ever faced in the past?

AFTER reading the Human Rights Watch report (Irish Examiner, January 28), it astounds me that the Government still ignores the demand to legalise abortion in Ireland.

IF I were to create a film about the HSE and its handling of the distribution of the swine vaccine, I would call it One Flu Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

AN EXTRA 1,000 hospital beds promised by the Government may not be delivered because of “complications” with the co-location plan.

The Department of Health and Children and the HSE has today announced that there has been one further death from swine flu.

THE Irish Examiner’s special investigation into suicide has been raised in the Dáil.

POOR Mary Harney – those damned doctors have been ruining it for everyone again as they deliberately vandalise the health service.

AN OIREACHTAS committee is to seek an independent review of the cases of women who underwent a controversial procedure during childbirth which left them with a litany of lasting health problems.

Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney today said she "strongly welcomed" the report of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) on services at Ennis Hospital.

THE High Court has ordered the Health Service Executive (HSE) to pay for the losses a chain of pharmacies suffered arising out of a dispute over payments under general medical services drugs and services scheme.

“IT is extraordinary that in 2008 we should be having this case,” a judge at the Children’s Court said today as he was forced for a third time to grant bail to a troubled girl who wants to be detained.

The Government may have to amend 2001 legislation to implement its u-turn on medical cards for over-70s, the Dáil heard today.

A long-delayed inquiry into the tragic deaths of a family of four in their Co Wexford home was today received by two Government ministers.

Bernard Collins has been re-appointed chairman of Vhi Healthcare for a further five years.

An inquiry into the deaths of a family of four in their Co Wexford home last year has been delayed – for the third time.

A report into a missed diagnosis of breast cancer for a woman at University Hospital Galway has said the diagnosis was missed on two occasions in the case of the woman, known as Ms A.

An inquiry into the deaths of a family of four in their Co Wexford home last year will report in September.

A DEPRESSED teenage girl who overdosed on two occasions cannot get the treatment she needs because of a six-week waiting list for a hospital bed.

Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney has today admitted that an external inquiry may be required to investigate the circumstances surrounding a surgical procedure at Our Lady's Hospital Crumlin, in which a child had a healthy kidney removed by mistake.

UP to 120 hospital consultant posts are being advertised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as part of its continued efforts to increase the numbers of consultants working in the public service.

PATIENTS are continuing to suffer and die because of continued overcrowding in hospital emergency departments (EDs) — two years after Health Minister Mary Harney described the situation as a “national emergency”.

THE Government has filed a Dáil motion on last week’s cancer reports that does not contain one single word of criticism of the Health Service Executive — despite the fact the reports were damning of the organisation.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has been accused of bullying pharmacists into accepting uneconomic and unworkable contracts.

TÁNAISTE Brian Cowen last night insisted he made no criticism of the Minister for Health over her financial management of the €16 billion health budget.

Fianna Fáil backbencher Ned O'Keeffe has resigned the party whip in protest over the health controversy.

AN emotional Mary Harney last night declared: “Quitting is a shortcut to failure, and I don’t accept failure.”

The crisis surrounding breast cancer services in the state was tonight branded one of the blackest chapters in the recent history of the country's health system.

In a robust defence of her actions amid angry scenes in Dail Éireann tonight, Mary Harney has apologised to the nine women recently diagnosed with having cancer after having previously been told that they were clear of the disease.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader and health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has tonight challenged TDs to register a vote of no confidence in Minister for Health Mary Harney tomorrow.

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheál Martin yesterday described being “shocked, annoyed and outraged” on hearing it alleged on the radio news he had received a six-figure sum from Cork-based property developer Owen O’Callaghan.

BERTIE AHERN yesterday insisted the Government would not be able to run the country without the €4m of taxpayers’ money it spends on spin doctors and advisers.