Portlaoise problems must be addressed

The hospital has suffered from a spate of negative publicity in recent years.

As a hospital, it isn’t capable of sustaining a 24/7 emergency department," said IAEM spokesman Dr Fergal Hickey

The government’s failure to address the future of the Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise is grossly unfair to staff at the hospital and the local population.

This hospital has suffered from a spate of negative publicity in recent years. It was at the centre of a cancer misdiagnosis scandal in 2007-2008. Then the RTÉ Investigations Unit aired a programme on baby deaths in 2014, and the hospital was again mired in controversy.

Healthcare regulator ...