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News: December 2007
UK: Plan to reform cancer care
Emer Mullins | 14 December 2007 | Foreign News
The British government’s plan to reform cancer services and to increase the survival rates of UK patients with cancer– still below the European average– was unveiled last week. Health Secretary Alan Johnson has pledged to invest £370 million in cancer... Read more
Cambodia: Flying eye hospital makes first training visit
Emer Mullins | 14 December 2007 | Foreign News
What has been dubbed the world's only airborne 'flying eye hospital', an ophthalmic surgical and training facility housed inside a converted DC-10 aircraft, is to visit Cambodia for the first time at the invitation of the Ministry of Health, a... Read more
Pharmacy dispensing is made simple
14 December 2007 | Information Technology
Helix Health has announced that it will become the first Irish company to provide a range of robotic solutions to Irish pharmacies — having signed a deal to market and distribute a range of automated dispensing machines for community and... Read more
Using GP data for research
14 December 2007 | General Practice, Information Technology
According to Dr David Stables, a Director of QResearch in the UK, accurate and up-to-date electronic health records are the cornerstone of the modern GP practice there – supporting the highest quality of care for the individual patient. But these... Read more
Party on with the taxman!
Barry O'Brien | 14 December 2007 | General Practice
It’s that time of year again, when it becomes impossible to ignore that Christmas is on our doorstep and the annual question of the financing of the staff Christmas party has been raised as a discussion topic over coffee. The... Read more
Supreme Court dismisses appeal in organ retention case
Ed Madden | 14 December 2007 | Medico-Legal
Bridget Devlin and her husband Terence brought a case in the Supreme Court in which they appealed against a decision of the High Court issued on 1 July, 2004. The High Court dismissed their claim for damages arising from the... Read more
China joins WHO to fight infection
Emer Mullins | 14 December 2007 | Foreign News
China’s government has pledged to tackle healthcare-associated infections by officially joining the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) programme, the Global Patient Safety Challenge. China’s Vice Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu, said the Ministry would establish and implement the technical standards for... Read more
Public is the major investor in health
Greg Baxter | 14 December 2007 | Health Management
The proportion of private sector investment in the health service has dropped significantly since the mid-1990s, according to the Minister for Health, Mary Harney. “The proportion of public spending has been increasing rapidly in recent years,” she said, speaking at... Read more
Asylum seeker post still unfilled
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Public Health
A senior medical officer’s post for asylum seekers in Co Galway has lain idle for nine months, it has been claimed. Councillor Michael Mullins made the claim at the recent Health Service Executive (HSE) West’s Regional Health Forum recently. He... Read more
Sligo GPs reject relocation
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | General Practice
The GPs in the North Sligo primary care team do not want to move to a single location because their patients would have to travel further and the practices could lose some of their “customer base,” the Health Service Executive... Read more
GP outpatient link-up needed
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | General Practice
The failure to create an integrated primary care system and link GPs to outpatient departments is one reason public patients wait for a long time to see a consultant, it has been claimed. Prof Richard Layte of the Economic and... Read more
141 patients missed out on a tribunal hearing
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Medico-Legal
More psychiatric patients had their involuntary detention revoked in October, before a tribunal hearing into their case, than in any month since the Mental Health Act came into force in November 2006. The latest figures from the Mental Health Commission... Read more
Hospice fails to get planning for extension
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Planning and Development
A planning application by the Galway Hospice Foundation Limited has been declared invalid by the city’s council. The hospice applied to the local authority for outline permission for a two storey over basement extension at its facility, which is located... Read more
Talks turn to new jobs
Ian McGuinness & Greg Baxter | 14 December 2007 | Industrial Relations
Attempts are being made to broker an agreement that would allow consultants to be recruited while common contract talks are ongoing, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said. Mr Fintan Hourihan, IMO Director of Industrial Relations, said any such arrangement... Read more
Berlin building to augment pensions
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 |
The Irish Medical Organisation Financial Services (IMOFS) section is trying to arrange the purchase of a building worth €13.8 million in Berlin, so its members can invest in it for their pensions. The exact address of the new office property... Read more
No draft GP contract prepared for talks
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Industrial Relations
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has recently told the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) that there is still no draft GP contract ready for negotiations, Dr Martin Daly has said. The IMO GP Committee Chairman made the statement after remarks made... Read more
Nurses get flexible leave
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Industrial Relations
About 1100 nursing staff at Cork University Hospital (CUH) have won a Labour Court recommendation that their union’s proposals on parental leave should be accepted by the Health Service Executive (HSE). Under the existing scheme, when the Irish Nurses Organisation... Read more
Fertility clinics fear giving PGD referrals
Sandra Ryan | 14 December 2007 | Public Health
A European Commission report on the availability of services for the genetic screening of embryos has criticised the lack of such facilities in Ireland, and revealed that Irish fertility clinics fear prosecution for referring patients abroad in these cases. The... Read more
Crumlin Hospital to build infectious diseases unit
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 | Hospital Medicine
Crumlin Hospital is pressing ahead with a six-bed unit that will treat patients with infectious diseases. The unit will be an interim solution while the new National Paediatric Hospital is being built. The facility will normally operate as a six-bed... Read more
HSE 'failed to act' on Emergency Dept report
Greg Baxter | 14 December 2007 | Hospital Medicine
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has “failed to act on all the major conclusions” of the Emergency Department (ED) Task Force report, the Secretary of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) has told Irish Medical Times. Speaking on the... Read more
Harney calls for prudence with HSE spending in 2008
Greg Baxter | 14 December 2007 | Health Management
The Minister for Health has sent a stern warning to the Health Service Executive (HSE) with regard to managing its 2008 budget. The Department of Health has allocated €14.9 billion to the HSE for its 2008 budget. Asked by Irish... Read more
Harney defends HSE freeze recruitment freeze
Ian McGuinness | 14 December 2007 |
Over 500 whole-time equivalent posts have been excluded from the recruitment freeze, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney has said. She told Deputy Joe Costello (Labour, Dublin Central) that 520.8 such whole-time equivalent posts were approved, where they were identified... Read more
Still no hospice for dying children
Sandra Ryan | 14 December 2007 | Public Health
Most people may be aware of Jane and Brendan McKenna, a couple from Dublin whose two children died within three years of each other. Their four year old daughter, Laura, died in 1999 following surgery to treat a congenital heart... Read more
Nurse prescribing has radical implications
Greg Baxter | 14 December 2007 |
The graduation of the first 22 nurse and midwife prescribers has brought a potentially radical change to the way patients in the community, in palliative care settings, and some hospital departments are treated. It may, through a rigid and closely... Read more
Prescribing by nurses won't help
Greg Baxter | 07 December 2007 | Hospital Medicine
Nurse prescribing is not going to have any effect on delays in emergency departments, an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has told Irish Medical Times. Dr Stephen Cusack said he has no concerns with nurses prescribing “simple,... Read more
CF patients treated in overcrowded and inadequate facilities
Greg Baxter | 07 December 2007 | Hospital Medicine
St Vincent’s University Hospital is “totally bursting at the seams” with cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, and the lack of a dedicated facility means many of them have to be placed in rooms where they are at a high risk of... Read more
Rules won't hit numbers
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Regulation
The President of the Medical Council, Dr Colm Quigley, has tried to reassure people that stricter regulations on foreign doctors practising here will not lead to a shortage of medics in the Republic. Irish Medical Times understands that doctors fear... Read more
HSE gives wrong info on GMS card eligibility
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Regulation
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has been reprimanded by the Citizens Information Board for giving out incorrect information in relation to medical card qualification. The Kerry Citizens Information Board outlined the case of an English woman, who was receiving a... Read more
Expert warns: civilians should be adept in CPR
Greg Baxter | 07 December 2007 | Public Health
Learning cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) must be thought of a civic duty, an emergency medicine consultant told Irish Medical Times. Dr Cathal O’Donnell said training citizens to perform CPR is often the biggest factor between life and death. This was a... Read more
Private patients now displace public ones
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Hospital Medicine
The redistribution of resources from private to public patients in acute public hospitals is consistent with allegations that the latter type of patients are being crowded out, a working paper from the Economic and Social Research Institute has suggested. The... Read more
Contract terms will be upheld on locum cover
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Industrial Relations
Employers have confirmed to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) that they will abide by the conditions on locum cover contained in the 1997 NCHD contract, Mr Fintan Hourihan has said. The union’s Director of Industrial Relations said the IMO’s NCHD... Read more
Confidence in the HSE is damaged by budget cuts
Greg Baxter | 07 December 2007 |
The discovery that budget cuts– and their negative impact on quality of care– were being discussed by the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) as early as May 2007, has further damaged consultants’ confidence in them as... Read more
Stalemate could impair response to a flu pandemic
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Public Health
The stalemate over pay for out-of-hours work by public health doctors could “significantly impair” any response to an influenza pandemic, it has been alleged. The remark was made in the recently published Influenza Pandemic Preparedness in Ireland, which was drawn... Read more
St Vincent’s cancer test internationally approved
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 |
A test developed by personnel in St Vincent’s University Hospital is to be used internationally to help decide whether or not women with breast cancer should receive chemotherapy, Irish Medical Times has been told. Prof Joe Duffy, Principal Grade Biochemist... Read more
Very few heroin users get free of addiction
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 |
A south Dublin GP has challenged assertions by Fine Gael’s Health Spokesperson that heroin users could be weaned off methadone for good in three to four weeks. Dr James Reilly told Irish Medical Times recently that when he worked in... Read more
Drug reactions up since 2005
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 |
Nearly 2,000 notifications of suspected adverse drug reactions were received by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) last year — an increase on 2005. The Board stated, in its annual report for 2006, that 1,907 such notifications were made to it.... Read more
Tax relief could amount to €41m
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 |
Forty one million euro in tax relief will be granted for every €100 million that qualifies for it under the hospital co-location programme, Minister Harney has said. Responding to questions from the Fine Gael leader, Deputy Enda Kenny, she said:... Read more
One-and-a-quarter billion levy expected
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 |
Over one-and-a-quarter billion euro in health contributions are expected to be raised this year, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, revealed. She explained that over €1.265 billion should be raised from the health levy in 2007. This compares to more... Read more
Call for cross-border care
Ian McGuinness | 07 December 2007 | Public Health
People from Fermanagh should be able to access cancer services from Sligo General Hospital, Deputy John Perry (FG, Sligo-North Leitrim) said. He said this possibility had not been analysed before and that the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, should discuss... Read more
Portugal: Survey shows health professionals reject rare and complex diseases
Emer Mullins | 07 December 2007 | Foreign News
A European survey on rare diseases has revealed that around 70 per cent of patients with rare diseases felt rejected by healthcare professionals. In a study carried out by the European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS) in 23 European countries,... Read more
USA: GPs' organisation has new plan
Emer Mullins | 07 December 2007 | Foreign News, General Practice
Americans could find a family doctor they like, name that doctor’s office as their medical home and assure themselves of comprehensive care, under a recent plan announced by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). In a report on its... Read more
UK: GPs not happy to treat with foreign medicines
Emer Mullins | 07 December 2007 | Foreign News
The Medical Protection Society (MPS) has said it has received a number of calls from GPs who had been asked by their female patients to administer IVF medication to them that they had obtained abroad. The MPS said doctors were... Read more