Nurses dispute - Compromises by both sides needed now

Health Minister Mary Harney is embattled on three fronts.

She is in conflict with both the nurses and the consultant doctors, while there is also confusion in relation to the co-location plans for private hospitals to be built on the grounds of eight public hospitals.

Developers who are interested will have to tender for the sites by mid-May, and the Health Service Executive will then evaluate the tenders, which could take another two weeks.