A dispute over the future of the national TB treatment hospital almost led to its closure before Christmas.
As talks on the future of Peamount Hospital in Newcastle, Co Dublin, continue, its chief executive says he is now confident it will continue as an acute TB and chest hospital.
The row arose from a joint plan by Peamount and St James's to improve TB and other respiratory facilities at both hospitals and to develop a close link with Tallaght Hospital.
Comhairle na nOspideal, which regulates consultant appointments, responded to the plan by recommending that no more acute patients should be admitted to Peamount. They should be treated in their local general hospitals instead.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show the recommendation was greeted with intense anger at Peamount which, as well as TB and other respiratory patients, has units for long-term chronic sick people, elderly people and people with mental handicaps. The hospital argues that loss of its acute status would adversely affect 300 patients.
Its threat to close and to ask the Eastern Regional Health Authority to find new places for its patients was followed quickly by what the chief executive, Mr John Lindsay, described in a letter as an "extremely positive" meeting with Comhairle na nOspideal.
Mr Lindsay now believes Peamount will continue as an acute hospital.
However, a decision to stop sending acute patients from Naas General Hospital to Peamount early last year has still not been reversed.
The South Western Area Health Board told The Irish Times that the acute hospitals in the area are Naas, St James's and Tallaght. After the acute phase of treatment, patients may be transferred to other hospitals, including Peamount.
The Newbrook Nursing Home in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, has been told by the Midland Health Board that it must not store medicines in food fridges.
After a November inspection, an environmental health officer complained that temperatures were very high at between 23C and 26C, that the floor of the staff dining/rest room was "engrained" with dirt and that the table and worktop in the staff dining room were stained and dirty.
She found protective covers on shower gullies were not in place in most of the shower units and warned that the open gully could be dangerous.
An earlier inspection by a doctor and public health nurse found no breaches of the nursing home regulations "from a medical/nursing perspective".
A spokeswoman for the home said a fridge for medicines was being unpacked the day the inspector called; that digital thermostats had been installed to solve the heating problem; and that the floor of the staff room had been discoloured by a spill of paint. She said that she was getting heavy covers for the showers as the covers complained of were light and moved easily.
hospitalwatch@irish-times.ie Hospital Watch on the Web: http://www.ireland.com/special/ hospital