The Government must set up an independent public inquiry, which may include strict time and budget limits to prevent a repeat of the tribunal excesses, if it wants to stop Savita Halappanavar’s death being investigated at European level.

The head of the HSE has paved the way for a separate independent investigation into Savita Halappanavar’s death to run parallel with his organisation’s own controversy-hit inquiry.

A patient advocate whose son died because of a series of misdiagnoses, lost opportunities, and inappropriate care has welcomed new national healthcare standards unveiled yesterday.

In Greek mythology Icarus attempted to escape from Crete using wings made of feathers and wax fashioned by his father, a master craftsman and innovator.

Ireland’s health watchdog has acknowledged that billions of euro worth of cutbacks to the health service over the coming years could cause another hospital crisis like that seen at Tallaght.

The issue of patients being forced to wait for treatment on hospital trolleys for long periods of time will come under the spotlight today.

Two separate reviews into why Tallaght Hospital spent millions of euro on non-tendered external consultancy work and ‘top-up’ payments for high-ranking staff are under way.

Patients languished on trolleys in the corridors of one of the country’s busiest hospitals with nobody responsible for their care, the State’s health safety watchdog has found.

Sick patients were put at risk by the State’s failure to hold Tallaght Hospital to account, the health watchdog has found.

No one was accountable for patients who were left lying on trolleys in corridors for long periods in Tallaght Hospital, a watchdog found.

Health Minister Dr James Reilly says numerous issues identified in today’s report by the State’s health safety watchdog on Tallaght Hospital have already been acted on.

HOSPITALS in the north-east and mid-west are being closely monitored by the state’s health safety watchdog following a “flurry of concerns”.

IRISH children awaiting transplant operations in Britain may no longer be able to avail of organs from “non-heartbeating” donors if they live more than three hours travel time from the British hospital where the surgery will take place.

THE failure to arrange a flight in time to bring Leitrim teenager Meadhbh McGivern to London for a life-saving liver transplant operation was primarily due to the absence of a single co-ordinating agency or individual with overall charge of the patient’s transport arrangements.

A teenage girl missed a vital liver transplant in London because of a lack of leadership and an unreliable system for arranging rapid air ambulance transport, a health watchdog has found.

MORE than a dozen fresh allegations of foster care concerns against specific families have been made in a follow-up investigation into “unacceptable” standards in the sector.

THERE was an element of commercial loss consideration behind the move by the Rostrevor Nursing Home to restrain the Health Service Executive (HSE) from dispersing its residents among other care units, a judge said yesterday.

PATIENTS at Mallow General Hospital are being put in potential danger when permanent staff are on leave due in part to replacement levels, leaked correspondence has claimed.

CHILDREN have been placed in foster placements in which carers are alleged to have carried out abuse or in which carers are alleged drug dealers, according to new reports.

Minister for Children Barry Andrews said today that lessons have been learned from a report into child fostering services which found widespread disparities in how the services were being run.

Three reports published today by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) show considerable variations in the quality, safety and management of HSE foster care services in the Dublin area.

The Health Information and Quality Authority has given Tallaght hospital in Dublin two weeks to come up with a plan to strengthen management and clinical service issues.

AS the first piece of jewellery given to a child, the baby bracelet becomes a family heirloom, a tangible keepsake for generations to come.

THREE years after breast cancer patients were traumatised by a series of diagnoses errors, an independent watchdog has found our hospitals now meet the fundamental requirements for safe, quality care.

IT is unsafe to continue with acute services at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis, a damning report by the state’s health service watchdog reveals.

TWO families who triggered the independent review of services at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis are furious no one has been held accountable.

Ennis General Hospital has been declared unsafe according to a new report from the health watchdog HIQA.

THE state’s health service watchdog yesterday outlined the purpose and structure of its investigation into the quality and safety of patient care at Ennis General Hospital.

A review by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) of services at Ennis General Hospital will include an examination of communication between staff and patients as well as a review of clincial care at the hospital.

Up to 1,000 backroom jobs will be slashed across the health service over the next 12 months, the Health Service Executive said today.

A PLAN to overhaul the health service published this week has been described as “quietly revolutionary”, by a leading health consultant.

Rogue medics who open private clinics could be targeted under guidelines to license the industry, it emerged tonight.

A REVIEW into cancer services at University College Hospital Galway has revealed a locum pathologist made mistakes in cancer checks of 50 patients.

ALL 12-year-old girls should be vaccinated against cervical cancer when they start secondary school, the state’s health services’ watchdog has urged.

THE man who headed the State’s probe into the misdiagnosis of a breast cancer patient was “surprised and disappointed” but not “horrified” when it revealed systemic mismanagement at two HSE hospitals.

PLANNED quality standards for nursing homes will inevitably increase the cost of care.

Wide-ranging quality standards for nursing homes were unveiled today but they could raise the cost of care for families.

THE Tipperary woman wrongly given the all-clear from breast cancer has claimed the report into her treatment is being delayed by hospital staff wanting to “delay, derail or ultimately kill” the investigation.

THE publication of a report into the delayed diagnosis of cancer in a woman who subsequently had to have a mastectomy has been deferred until January.

SOME cancer treatment centres in Ireland must close if a proper standard of care is to be delivered, Health Minister, Mary Harney said yesterday.

WOMEN with suspected breast cancer must have three experts check their test results before a diagnosis is made under new standards to be enforced.

Cancer cases increased almost 3% every year since the mid 1990s, it emerged tonight.

THE head of a health watchdog has not ruled out the possibility of another scandal of the scale that resulted in more than 200 women having their wombs needlessly removed.

IF any sector of Irish life is in need of a public watchdog, it is the country’s much criticised health service. The spate of scandals and controversies that dogged the service in recent times underlines the need for such a body.