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News: Interviews

All entries for Interviews

HIQA calculate 'cost per life gained'

Gary Culliton | 31 July 2008

Gary Culliton reports on HIQA's Health Technology Assessment Directorate, which is charged with establising the cost-effectiveness of new public initiatives. A Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is about more than deciding whether a programme is cost-effective. HIQA’s cervical cancer HTA recently... Read more

Vhi boss confident of seeing off competitors

Sandra Ryan | 06 July 2008

Sandra Ryan speaks to Mr Jimmy Tolan, Chief Executive of Vhi Healthcare, about the changes taking place in the health insurance market. New Vhi Healthcare Chief Executive Jimmy Tolan, who throughout our interview is admirably pleasant and talkative, doesn’t change... Read more

Pharmacists face negative equity

Gary Culliton | 10 June 2008

Gary Culliton speaks to Mr Jim Canavan, UniPhar CEO, about how pharmacies have reduced in value over the last 18 months . Pharmacies may have reduced in value by one third over the last 18 months and young pharmacists who... Read more

Community services to grow

Greg Baxter | 08 June 2008

Greg Baxter spoke to Mr Jim Joyce, CEO of Point of Care, a company whose specialist infusion clinics spare patients from making trips to hospital. The opening of the second Point of Care clinic – a specialist nursing infusion centre... Read more

Ireland must fight for devices industry

Greg Baxter | 01 June 2008

Greg Baxter spoke to Dr John O'Dwyer about how competition from other countries may threaten Ireland's medical devices industry. Ireland could lose irrevocable ground to Poland and the Czech Republic if it does not reduce bureaucracy in clinical trials for... Read more

'Hollywood ending' for radiotherapy plan?

Greg Baxter | 18 May 2008

Greg Baxter heard good news about the progress of the national radiotherapy plan, when he spoke with Prof Donal Hollywood at the sixth International Cancer Conference. The chairman of one of the most important strategy documents in the history of... Read more

Challenging medical education

Greg Baxter | 27 April 2008

Greg Baxter spoke to Prof Geraldine MacCarrick, about the introduction of outcomes-based medical education. The principles of medical education that dominated the 20th century, proposed in 1910 by Abraham Flexner, stated that future doctors ought to spend years listening to... Read more

Shooting from the hip

Gary Culliton | 02 April 2008

Gary Culliton talks about the problems of Ireland's HSE with the Irish-born troubleshooter and presenter of BBC's 'Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS?' It doesn’t matter what you pay a Chief Executive, if you get an organisation that works,” according... Read more

Major reform needed to curb drinking

02 April 2008

The Government may have to make decisions, in the fight against alcohol abuse, which will result in a loss of money for the exchequer, a prominent consultant psychiatrist has warned. Dr Siobhán Barry, who appeared last week before the Oireachtas... Read more

GP contract — IMO fights for its rights

ian McGuinness | 26 March 2008

Ian McGuinness spoke to incoming IMO President Dr Martin Daly about his dissatisfaction with the ongoing problems regarding the GP contract. The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) will use legal means, if necessary, to assert its right to represent general practitioners,... Read more

Viruses set to 'kill' cancer

Gary Culliton | 19 March 2008

Gary Culliton talks to the Irishman now charged with running cancer-care services in the US state of Texas Galway-born Dr Frank Giles is responsible for cancer care in a much larger population than the entire island of Ireland. He heads... Read more

HSE plans 'fundamentally flawed'

Greg Baxter | 15 February 2008

Greg Baxter talks about plans for national AMAUs to Dr Bernard Silke, the Director of the Acute Medical Admissions Unit at St James' Hospital The Health Service Executive’s (HSE’s) plan to reduce its dependency on acute inpatient beds is fundamentally... Read more

Doctors' doctor celebrates 80 years

Sandra Ryan | 07 February 2008

Sandra Ryan speaks to the now-retired Dr Aiden Meade, who was over 40 years in general practice and helped found the Sick Doctors Scheme There are not many GPs left practising in Ireland who started out in the 1940s or... Read more

Doctor says suspension was 'bad for patients'

Gary Culliton | 01 February 2008

Gary Culliton talks to Dr Jerome Manuceau - the surgeon suspended after a number of complaints were made to the Medical Council last year. An inquest* will be held on 5 February into the death of Ms Bernadette Kavenagh-Reid, who... Read more

A case of optimism in obstetrics

Sandra Ryan | 25 January 2008

People may be sick of reading about the problems in the health service - especially, of late, problems in women’s health services - but for the medical personnel trying to wade through the problems and simply do their job every... Read more

Changing days for psychiatric sector

Ian McGuinness | 18 January 2008

St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin is to launch a new strategy this spring, its newly-appointed Medical Director has revealed. While Dr Jim Lucey did not want to give specific details of the strategy at present, he explained that it will... Read more

Hospital budgets need flexibility

Greg Baxter | 30 November 2007

Hospitals cannot be expected to work within the constraints of fixed yearly budgets, and increased flexibility must be allowed so that hospitals can adapt to swift changes in demand, according to a leading healthcare strategist. Mr Vincent Barton, recently appointed... Read more

Consultant meetings are the biggest time-wasters of all

Greg Baxter | 23 November 2007

Mr Simon Dodds, a British surgeon, tells Greg Baxter that hospitals ought to ensure that doctors are not doing wasteful work– that way we would have a more efficiently run health system Consultants spend more than 10 per cent of... Read more

A case of just needing adequate resources

Greg Baxter | 16 November 2007

The story of the new cardiothoracic surgery unit at University College Hospital Galway is as much about the innovation that consultants can drive, if given the proper support, as it is about resistance to change within hospitals. Dr Mark De... Read more

Setting the rules for competition

Ian McGuinness | 02 November 2007

Medical professionals have come into contact on a number of occasions in recent years with the Competition Authority. At present, pharmacists are being investigated by the Authority to see if their withdrawal from the methadone scheme constituted a breach of... Read more

Is eradication just around the corner?

Sandra Ryan | 19 October 2007

The advent of two new cervical cancer vaccines means screening may not be necessary in 10-years’ time. If young girls (and boys) are vaccinated against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the cancer-causing agent, the next generation of women could be... Read more

More than a skin-deep service

Ian McGuinness | 12 October 2007

A keen interest in dermatology by Tralee GP Dr David Buckley, has resulted in a special clinic being established above his general practice in the Kerry town. Dr Buckley, who explained that he has been a member of the European... Read more

A happy accident for indemnity claimants

Sandra Ryan | 05 October 2007

Before the existence of the PIAB, solicitors made a lot of money by bringing personal injury claims to the courts. Now, doctors are the ones getting a fee for assessing injuries and performing independent examinations. The PIAB, which is self-funded,... Read more

The man is definitely up to the challenge

Ian McGuinness | 28 September 2007

Taking up the post of Fine Gael spokesperson on health was a natural progression from his role in representing the interests of doctors and patients, according to Dr James Reilly. Referring to his activity in the Irish Medical Organisation, and... Read more

Continuing to fight the stigma of HIV and AIDS

Ian McGuinness | 21 September 2007

Stigma against people with HIV or AIDS is a problem in both Ireland and South Africa but when James O’Connor spent two-and-a-half months in the latter country he heard some dramatic stories. Mr O’Connor, who is living with HIV, said... Read more

Pandemic — a matter of time

Sandra Ryan | 14 September 2007

"If I had asked for one per cent of the royalties from sales of Tamiflu, I would now have one per cent of $1.7 billion,” said Prof Graeme Laver, the Australian scientist who was pivotal in the development of antiviral... Read more

Campaigning for better health

Colin Kerr | 31 August 2007

Good health promotion programmes can help save lives, reduce hospital visits and create a society whose citizens are both physically and mentally healthy. One of the problems with health promotion, however, is that it is not always easy to quantify... Read more

Safer drugs are driving pharmaceutical trade

Colin Kerr | 17 August 2007

John Kiernan, managing director of Quintiles and Innovex Ireland, has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years. He recalls that when he first came into the industry, one of the things that was generally accepted was that... Read more

Only 10% of Irish rape victims report attacks

Sandra Ryan | 03 August 2007

Can sexual violence ever be fully stamped out, as is the aim of the Rape Crisis Network? Probably not, but one encouraging statistic to emerge recently was that there has been the increase in the number of rape cases reported... Read more

Taking care of business for the sake of players

Ian McGuinness | 27 July 2007

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) didn’t seek Department of Health or Health Service Executive (HSE) funding for its recent initiative on automated external defibrillators because it decided to press ahead with the process on its own, Dr Tadhg Crowley explained.... Read more

Closer collaboration with patients

Colin Kerr | 20 July 2007

Dave Shanahan says his decision to leave his job as Managing Director of Pfizer Healthcare Ireland to join the Charter Medical Group as Group Chief Executive Officer was not a difficult one. Although Charter Medical is not a small operation,... Read more

Learning from the very best

Greg Baxter | 13 July 2007

A week in the life of Dr Brian Hennessy– an attending medical oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas– is something that would make most doctors here extremely envious. Dr Hennessy is a graduate of University College... Read more

At the heart of the Irish soccer team

Colin Kerr | 06 July 2007

As Medical Director of the Football Association of Ireland, Dr Alan Byrne has one of the most important jobs in the association. The most high-profile aspect of his job is his responsibility for the elite professionals who represent the senior... Read more

He lost the war but he battles on

Ian McGuinness | 22 June 2007

Former Mayo independent TD, Dr Jerry Cowley, has had a month to come to terms with his election defeat. The Mulranny GP is back in his practice, which has three offices in the county. Dr Cowley said his locum, who... Read more

ASH chairman defends his call for ban on smoking in Irish cars

Ian McGuinness | 08 June 2007

It is inevitable that smoking in cars will be banned, Prof Luke Clancy has predicted. Despite the negative response from some callers to radio shows that he appeared on to discuss this issue, Prof Clancy is sticking to his line.... Read more

Talk the talk, or walk the walk warning to HSE from NCHDs

01 June 2007

Junior hospital doctors have had enough of the dismissive attitude of health service employers and according to the new IMO NCHD Committee Chairman, they are as mad as hell and are not going to take any more. Dr John Morris... Read more

Losing the battle for better patient services

Ian McGuinness | 25 May 2007

Former Irish Medical Organisation President (IMO) Dr Christine O’Malley has some big decisions to make in the coming months and at this stage she intends taking three months leave of absence from the public health service in order to consider... Read more

A land of opportunity

Greg Baxter | 18 May 2007

US-based doctor Ruth O’Regan is the kind of talented consultant Ireland wants- and needs- back in our hospitals, but she has no intention of returning. Dr O’Regan, a medical oncologist who studied at University College Dublin (UCD) and trained with... Read more