Martin faces nationwide protests over plan to downgrade hospitals

PROTESTS are planned against the proposed downgrading of several regional hospitals around the country.

Health Minister Micheál Martin is expected to receive a radical report later this week which calls for the reduction of egional hospitals to 11.

This would mean places such as Galway, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal and parts of the Midlands would no longer enjoy the status of having a regional hospital with a range of specialists and facilities to carry out major surgery.