What it says in the papers

Raising questions with funds

“If people in Kerry paid to take part in a golf classic for Crumlin or medical research, do they want to see that funding diverted to get a foothold in a new public hospital?”
An unnamed hospital consultant at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin is quoted in the Sunday Business Post on the issue of donor intent, now that it has emerged the new national paediatric hospital is seeking more than €130 million from the National Lottery, €17 million from UCD, DCU, Trinity and the RCSI, and €23 million from research bodies – including the foundation associated with Crumlin Hospital – to fill a €200 million gap in funding.

Worrying findings on IVF

“We really had to search to find this information and, if there are that many cases in a small country like the Netherlands, there must be very many more around the world.”
Prof Didi Braat, professor of obstetrics at Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, tells The Sunday Times of new research which found that the risk of a women dying in pregnancy following IVF treatment is more than three times higher than if she had become pregnant naturally. Some women may be dying because their bodies reject donated eggs, while with others, underlying health
problems may come to the fore. Prof Braat identified 17 women who died in pregnancy between 1984 and 2008, who had received IVF treatment.

Day off at the races

“I think, given the times that are in it, we need, like the Fianna Fáil tent, to put these kind of practices behind us.”
Niall O Brolcháin, Green Party senator and party spokesman on health, tells the Irish Examiner he was disappointed to hear that the tradition of days off for race week was allowed to continue for HSE staff, at a time when cutbacks were being implemented in other areas of health. HSE West confirmed to the paper that clerical and administration grades had been granted two race days to attend the festival, which began on Monday.
The concession has been granted at a time when the HSE is plan-ning to cancel all elective surgery at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway for the last four months of the year, as part of a cost-containment plan. The hospital has also closed for three weeks from last Monday.