Pay row causes post-mortem disruptions

A pay dispute at Cavan General Hospital means that bodies are being driven 160 miles for post-mortems because the North Eastern Health Board is refusing to pay porters an estimated €2 extra per hour, it was claimed today.

The Board is instead sending bodies to Dublin at an estimated cost of over €300 per body transported. The two porters in dispute with the hospital have been working there for over a decade.

Labour’s spokesperson on health, Liz McManus, described the dispute as extremely serious and a case of management gone mad.

“Delivering a cost of this magnitude and creating difficulties for people, it must be extremely distressing indeed for families affected, it simply makes no sense at all,” she said.