THE IRISH TIMES

Sense of denial over death

“Perhaps it’s so momentous a thing that they just want to blot it out, or maybe the person is thinking of those they will leave behind and the effect it will have on them. Or it could simply be down to an unwillingness to face up to the decision-making process involved in end-of-life care.”

Paul Murray of the Irish Hospice Foundation says that there could be a number of factors at play when it comes to people’s attitudes to dying. A new survey has revealed that many of us are ill-informed about dying and the end-of-life decisions that are involved.

Superbug on the move to US and UK

“I wouldn’t like to be working at a hospital where NDM-1 was introduced. It could take months before you got rid of it, and treating individual patients with it could be very difficult.”

Dr William Schaffner, Chairman of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University. NDM-1 — a dangerous new mutation that makes some bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics — has become increasingly common in India and Pakistan and is being found in patients in Britain and the US who got medical care in those countries, according to new studies.

Prognosis on Lockerbie bomber

“I was surprised when I heard he was being released, because I wasn’t really asked for my opinion… it’s a bit odd.”

Dr Zak Latif, the urologist in Scotland who cared for Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, tells The Sunday Times of his ‘surprise’ that his opinion was not sought before Megrahi was released back to Libya on humanitarian grounds in August last year. It has emerged that none of the four key experts signed off on the three-month prognosis of Megrahi’s terminal cancer. The Libyan is currently receiving chemotherapy in Tripoli for his prostate cancer.

The ‘smart’ economy

“This medical technology and innovation is part of the solution to rising healthcare costs, not the cause. It can, and will, hasten economic renewal, productivity, growth and jobs.”

CEO of the Irish Medical and Surgical Trade Association (Imsta) Justin Carty has accused the HSE of denying patients access to the latest medical technologies. In a report in The Sunday Business Post, Carty claimed the Executive’s procurement process did not take into account the cost-savings that new equipment could generate, and undermined the drive to create new high-end jobs. The HSE refuted the charge, describing its procurement process as “robust and stringent.”