Time for Martin to take action

CRISIS management is now the order of the day in a creaking health service where hospitals are so overcrowded and staff shortages so acute that overtime payments to nurses are running at almost €10 million for the first six months of 2003.

And that figure does not take into account the staffing situation in major hospitals such as the Mater, St Vincent's, Beaumont and Our Lady's at Crumlin.

Despite pumping billions of euro into the service, Health Minister Micheál Martin is beset by problems that will not go away. It is time for him to take action.