Health crisis - Hospitals heading for emergency

NOT for the first time, junior doctors are threatening to go on strike in hospitals around the country in protest over their conditions of work.

There is a distinct sense of deja vu about disputes at Waterford and Tralee hospitals which now threaten to blow into a full scale, nationwide strike. Central to this problem is a row over trainee doctors being deployed on senior staff rosters.

In what looks like an industrial relations crisis in the making, trainee nurses will also take to the picket line in a separate row over meal allowances at Waterford Regional Hospital.