MORE than one-third of all public patient beds in Ireland are set to close over the next six years. This will enable private investors to make money from the sick and the dying.

PATIENTS in the north-east will die because the Health Service Executive will continue to cut back on services even if plans to develop a new regional hospital are shelved, a doctor warned yesterday.

ORGANISERS of a rally for better healthcare being held in Dublin this weekend will be disappointed if at least 70,000 people do not turn up to demand better health services across the country.

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

HOSPITAL campaign groups around the country have reacted with concern to the health authorities’ decision to confine cancer services to just eight centres.

The news that the north-east is to lose up to 1,000 hospital beds over the next five years has been described as 'obscene'.

A DEPARTMENT store owner who led a cavalcade of around 100 commercial trucks, vans and lorries to Dublin yesterday to protest over the future of Monaghan General Hospital warned that the local business community will be making their vote count in the general election.

The Minister for Health Mary Harney is being given a proposal for the restoration of services at Monaghan General Hospital.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney will be urged, on the eve of Valentine’s Day to show she has a heart.

GROUPS opposed to the reduction of services in Monaghan General Hospital said there’s been a “shift in attitude” from the Government on plans for changing the health service in the north-east.

PLANS to downgrade Monaghan General Hospital have caused a major split among local Fianna Fáil politicians as the controversial hospital reform plans are set to become major issues in the run-up to the general election.

AN OVERHAUL of the way acute hospital care is delivered in the north east to improve patient safety is to be replicated nationally.

CAMPAIGNERS for improved services at Monaghan General Hospital have expressed hope that an official report into the death of an elderly farmer at the hospital last year will result in major changes to health services in the north-east.

A PUBLIC inquiry into the quality of hospital care in the north-east is expected to be held at the end of April.

ANOTHER woman has given birth in an ambulance by the side of the road following the closure of the maternity unit at Monaghan General Hospital.

ONE of the last patients to be discharged from Monaghan General Hospital’s acute surgical ward at the weekend was the elderly mother of the head of the group campaigning against the continual downgrading of the hospital.

Campaigners from Co Monaghan will drive a hearse to the Dáil later today in protest over the reduction in services at Monaghan General Hospital.

THE body count will continue to rise in Monaghan, community activists claimed last night, because the local hospital must continue to function without emergency surgery.

A PUBLIC inquiry is to be established by the Monaghan Health Services Action Group (HSAG) to examine the quality of care being offered by Monaghan General Hospital.

THE needless death of a patient in Monaghan General Hospital (MGH) has caused national outrage. The current trawl for a scapegoat is misconceived, however.

IN the case of a major emergency, surgical staff at Monaghan General Hospital could be called in to perform after-hours surgery, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday.

MEDICAL and nursing staff at a Tipperary hospital are to join with a local hospital action group to develop and fund a €50,000 blueprint on how their hospital should be developed.

THE notice announcing the death of Patrick Walsh said he had gone peacefully but if that is so, the retired farmer’s last moments contrast starkly with the strife his untimely passing has left behind.

HOSPITAL campaigners have refused to be reassured by the ordering of an internal report into the latest death of a patient denied treatment at Monaghan General Hospital.

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.

LOBBYISTS campaigning against the downgrading of small hospitals claim there are community groups around the country ready to mobilise at a moment’s notice to oppose the implementation of the Hanly reform of the health service.

A group campaigning for proper hospital services in the north-east of the country has called on the executive of the local health board to resign.

BADLY managed hospitals where patients’ health is not improved by high treatment costs have been fined €7.5 million.

THE group opposed to the Hanly report and plans to downgrade 26 acute hospitals nationwide vowed yesterday to continue their fight, even though the plan has been put on hold.

A HEART attack victim who fell ill just minutes away from his local hospital, died after being taken to another hospital 37 miles away.

THE restoration of 24-hour accident and emergency services to crisis-hit Monaghan General Hospital may not be sufficient to prevent a repeat of the Bronagh Livingstone tragedy, campaigners warned yesterday.

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.

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.

PEADAR MCMAHON is a man of steel. Flesh and blood predominantly, but the Kilrush man has a will and a shoulder of iron.

THE hospital at the centre of the baby Bronagh Livingstone controversy is without out-of-hours maintenance cover in a dispute with electricians and technicians over on-call payments.

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.

Monaghan residents say another baby will die if proper hospital services are not restored in the county immediately.