There is understandable tension in the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process between the need to do rigorous scientific analysis and the needs of policy advisors and decision makers to get answers quickly, Secretary General of the Department of Health Michael Scanlan told an international conference in Dublin this week. The event, HTAi 2010 – Maximising [...]
The long-awaited Health Information Bill will be published next month and go to the Oireachtas in the Autumn, Irish Medical Times has learned. One of the main purposes of the Bill, which is currently being formally drafted, will be to establish a legislative framework to enable information – in whatever form – to be used [...]
The Minister for Health has signed into law new requirements that make it mandatory for doctors to participate in professional competence schemes designed to ensure their skills and training are kept up to date. Minister Mary Harney has signed the commencement order which will bring into operation, from Saturday May 1, all remaining provisions of [...]
Doctors have just over a one-in-60 chance of having a complaint made against them to the Medical Council in a given year, new figures reveal. In 2009, 295 complaints were received by Council and considered by its Preliminary Proceedings Committee (PPC). More than two-thirds of these cases related to either the professional standards of doctors [...]
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, today (April 22) announced the publication of the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2010. The Bill provides for a modern statutory framework for the regulation of the nursing and midwifery professions. The Minister said, “I am very pleased to publish this draft Bill which follows on the regulatory changes introduced [...]
Minister Mary Harney gave a commitment during a Seanad debate yesterday, April 21, to ban female genital mutilation (FGM). Amnesty International has welcomed the Minister’s commitment to publish legislation on FGM. Over three million women and girls are subjected to FGM every year. The European Parliament estimates 500,000 women living in Europe are suffering with [...]
IMO delegates have backed a call for a ‘credible parity of standards’ of specialist certification across the EU. Dr Neil Brennan of the IMO’s International Affairs Committee explained that there was no single list of all recognised medical specialties within Europe. In some countries, for example, medical oncology was not a recognised specialty, he stated. [...]
The European Commission has requested the views of workers’ and employers’ representatives on the options for reviewing EU rules on working time. The first stage consultation, revealed last week (March 24), will ask the European social partners whether action is needed on the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) and what scope it should take. A [...]
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published its guidance for the HSE on the review of serious incidents including the deaths of children in care. The guidance is produced in response to the Department of Health’s implementation plan to the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. The guidance makes a [...]
Patient consultation areas will be required in all new pharmacies for private consultation and patient counselling. Under the Retail Pharmacy Businesses Regulations published in November 2008, a transition period was granted until 1 November, 2010 for pharmacies already in existence. The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) has published draft guidelines detailing the need for a [...]
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