Marymount Hospice runs a programme on the fundamental aspects of loss, grief, and bereavement that is open to everybody, including the public, writes Colette Sheridan

Babies, brides, and pets — not the usual cast of characters for a hospice, but Marymount is not your usual hospice.

Only around half of doctors around the country have signed up to provide free GP care for children under the age of 6.

Almost 10,000 people received specialist treatment for drug, alcohol and other substance abuse problems in the first three months of the year — including 18 children and teens.

Emergency beds are being “under-utilised” at some of Cork’s mental health units and community services must be modernised, according to the HSE.

Just over half of the 3,063 children placed in care in Cork and Kerry over a 10-year period were placed there against their parents’ wishes.

Three months after an Ombudsman’s report found children at risk in Cork City and county were being let down by under-resourced social services, not one new social worker has been drafted into the area.

Nine out of every 10 child abuse and child welfare referrals to social services are failing to meet strict government assessment targets in an area that has seen two children die in recent months.

Hundreds of children were left vulnerable to abuse because of inadequate services in parts of Cork City and county, it has emerged.

Seriously ill patients are being refused home help hours due to the HSE’s dire financial circumstances — with some terminally ill people receiving just four hours of support a week.

A new HSE review of its child and family services shows the Tipperary South area had the highest level of child neglect in the country although Dublin South East had the highest percentage of sexual abuse.

Thousands of children have been waiting for up to two years for speech and language therapy in the South of the country, figures from the HSE have shown.

THE independent watchdog tasked with inspecting services for more than 5,000 children in care has just half a dozen inspectors and no enforcement powers to prosecute those who breach the law.

AN early draft of the Teamwork Report on the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in Cork and Kerry envisaged a far more prominent role for the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) than the final report recommended.

CORK city mothers and their newborn babies are being left without crucial support from public health nurses (PHN) because of the recruitment freeze and a refusal to cover sick leave.

A SERIOUSLY-ill man who walked out of a hospital with a chest tube sticking out of his abdomen was found dead in a river a few hours later, an inquest heard yesterday.

MENTALLY ill patients in Kildare receive the lowest per capita funding in the country, 13 times less than those using a Dublin-based service.

CHILDREN awaiting specialist dental treatment in the health board area with the largest waiting list face further delays after a consultant orthodontist declined a job offer.