A&E to open after lying idle for two years

A HOSPITAL emergency department which has lain idle for almost two years will finally open in four weeks.

Management at Cork’s Mercy University Hospital (MUH) confirmed last night that the €4.6 million unit, which has never opened because of a staffing and funding row, will open on a 24-hour, seven days-a-week basis from late November.

However, management at what is one the country’s largest voluntary hospitals said a number of planned additional facilities still will not be available. These will be cordoned off to await their hoped-for introduction on a phased basis in the future, a spokesman said.