Debate on drug treatment
“More than 11,000 drug addicts are now being given the heroin substitute methadone as the HSE prepares to roll out new services to supply the replacement drug around the country. It’s costing nearly €20 million a year to provide the substitute to heroine addicts.”
With heroine use on the increase, the Sunday Independent turned to the letters page of Irish Medical Times to get both sides of the debate on the methadone treatment programme, extensively quoting recent correspondence to IMT from Dr Moosajee Bhamjee and Dr Cathal Ó Súilliobháin in its report last Sunday.
Doctors ‘brawl’ over woman in labour
“My wife was already in the labour room when her gynaecologist, who followed her pregnancy, and another doctor began to argue. The dispute erupted when her personal gynaecologist suggested a Caesarean and the other objected.”
Matteo Molonia, husband of Sicilian Laura Molonia, described what happened in the delivery room of the Policlinico Hospital, in Messina, last week. Police are questioning staff at the hospital after the Molonia’s child was born with suspected brain damage, after two doctors attending the mother allegedly came to blows over the need for a Caesarean as she went into labour.
Shifting view on heart health
“We have not seen results like SHIFT in heart failure in some time, so this is of major clinical importance. The problem of heart failure is reaching epidemic proportions in Ireland and worldwide due to our ageing population, so we urgently need better ways of managing this disease.”
Prof Ken McDonald, HSE national clinic programme director on heart failure, comments on the results of a global study into chronic heart failure, published in The Lancet, which found that a drug made in Co Wicklow reduces death and hospitalisation due to heart failure by more than 25 per cent in at-risk patients. The drug ivabradine is made by French company Servier at its Arklow plant and is sold under the name Procoralan in Ireland. Results of the SHIFT study were reported in all the national newspapers on Monday.
Diagnosing Les Bleus
“The problem with the French team wasn’t Anelka. You have to understand he is loved within the squad, immensely popular, even if he’s introverted.”
Jean-Pierre Paclet, the former chief doctor for the French national football team, spills some of the beans on the Saipan-like Gallic meltdown at the World Cup in South Africa. Anelka was sent home prematurely and, after the tournament, was banned for the next 18 internationals. The doctor’s new book is aptly titled L’Implosion.
About admin
Loading ...
