THE chairman of the state’s implementation body for health sector reform has received over €1 million in severance fees, non-tendered projects from former colleagues and other payouts since retiring from the health service.

AT a time when a single nurse can find herself caring for up to 30 elderly patients, the country’s largest nursing union has called for legislation to guarantee safe nurse-to-patient ratios.

KEY figures in charge of introducing PPARS did not know how far their authority stretched, with the result that important decisions were delayed or flawed.

PAT HARVEY, the former chair of the national steering committee for the PPARS project, has a reputation as a go-ahead and dynamic health executive, though one who has sometimes courted controversy for his direct approach.

CONSTRUCTION on a €9.5million building for the North Western Health Board began before formal funding for the project had been secured, a Dáil committee heard yesterday.

THE unexplained source of funding for a €9.5 million health board headquarters is to be scrutinised by a powerful taxpayers’ watchdog.

REFORM of health service structures will make no difference to patients unless there is more investment in the system, a top health official insisted yesterday.

The Northwestern Health Board says a patient has been isolated since the weekend with symptoms similar to the World Health Organisation's definition of the SARS virus.

The North Western Health board is to defer filling 44 new posts as it tries to meet Department of Health cutbacks.