The HSE is reportedly planning to move all acute services in the southern region to just one hospital in Cork city.
Reports this morning say an unpublished HSE report is recommending that all acute services in Cork and Kerry be transferred to Cork University Hospital over the next five or six years.
The recommendation is likely to cause uproar in the region, with five hospitals set to lose their acute services.
The plan would affect the Mercy University Hospital, the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Mallow and Bantry General Hospitals and Kerry General Hospital.