What it says in the papers…

New advice for women who miscarry

“The sound advice from obstetricians is that when you feel physically and emotionally ready, there’s no time-limit. If you feel within one month or two months that you want to conceive expeditiously, then you should go ahead and try. I agree with the BMJ research, not the WHO.”

Dr Tony Falconer, president-elect of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, believes the WHO’s advice that women who miscarry should wait at least six months before trying to become pregnant again had no basis in evidence. The BMJ has just published a study which found that would-be mothers who conceive within six months of a first miscarriage are more likely to have a successful subsequent pregnancy.

HSE ‘should be disbanded’

“It is a very corrupt and sick organisation, which should be disbanded. It is dysfunctional through and through. It is supposed to serve the public interest, but it only serves its own interests.”

Alison Kelly, a mother of two who underwent a mastectomy in 2005 after she was told by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, that a lump in her breast was not cancerous, says she was reluctantly forced to go to the High Court because of the HSE’s failure to properly investigate her treatment. Her case culminated in an admission of liability by the HSE and a substantial out-of-court settlement, believed to be a six-figure sum.

Alzheimer’s guidelines controversy

“They are driven by profits over progress and by trying to move a drug as fast as they can into the clinic without getting all the good evidence they need.”

Dr Jason Karlawish, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, fears that new early-diagnosis guidelines for Alzheimer’s are a sop to pharmaceutical companies so they can start marketing expensive, and perhaps not very effective, new drugs. The guidelines have been proposed by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association in the US.