Tanaiste to inspect US hospital facilities during weekend visit

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health is to examine accident and emergency and 'step down' care facilities during a visit to New York this weekend.

While there, Ms Harney will also look at the breast cancer and radiotherapy units at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital, one of the world's leading cancer centres.

Her visit to A & E facilities in New York comes as the Irish Nurses Organisation warned that the problems in Irish hospitals had deepened once more, with more than 220 patients waiting on trolleys for admission to beds in hospitals across the country last night.

A spokesman for the Tánaiste told The Irish Times last night that Ms Harney's US visit was mainly to fulfil a long-standing engagement to attend the annual dinner of the US/Ireland Council. But she will use her time there to visit the A & E facilities at St Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. She will also inspect 'step down' care centres in New Jersey.

Ms Harney has come under heavy pressure since her appointment at the end of September over the on-going crisis in hospital A & E units.

In a separate development, the State is to pay the legal expenses of hospital consultants who are not provided with cover for malpractice claims by their UK-based indemnity body as part of a row with the Government. The commitment emerged at a meeting between consultants and the Tánaiste yesterday afternoon.

The State is to establish a panel of legal firms who will act for the consultants affected. This latest deal is an interim measure, pending a comprehensive agreement between the Government and the Medical Defence Union.

Consultants at St James's Hospital in Dublin were scheduled to vote on industrial action later this week if the conflict over insurance cover was not resolved.

The senior doctors at St James's wanted to take action in support of a colleague - a surgeon - who is being sued for negligence, but who has been refused cover by the MDU to which he paid subscriptions over the years.

The MDU has refused to provide assistance in several cases in recent weeks. It is at loggerheads with the Department of Health over who should provide cover for claims arising out of past incidents since the Department introduced a new State insurance scheme for all consultants last February.