The recent hip-replacement recall shows just one element of the value of establishing national registries, says Dara Gantly It is one thing to recall some children’s toys or even suspect batches of medicines that don’t meet quality standards, but quite another to recall artificial hips already implanted to 3,500 Irish patients. Naturally enough, patients with [...]
When mitre is righter than the mob
September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dr Ruairi Hanley is pleased Pope Benedict has not bowed to mob justice and accepted the resignation of Bishop Raymond Field A few months ago, I wrote an article entitled ‘The Crime of Being Catholic’ (see http://www.imt.ie/opinion/guests/2010/04/the-crime-of-being-catholic.html). In it, I admitted that I am not a particularly religious person, being at best a rare visitor [...]
Letting the Kat out of the bag
September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The GAA has solved the encroachment problem at Croke Park — present the Liam McCarthy Cup to the Kilkenny captain before next Sunday’s game, reveals Dr Garrett FitzGerald The Drive-for-Five is nearly over, to be replaced by Okay-for-Sé. T-shirts are being stencilled as we speak. Kilkenny travel to Croke Park on Sunday with abundance of [...]
Contracts of indefinite duration
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Madeleine Delaney, Beauchamps Solicitors, looks at the meaning of “associated employers” when NCHD is claiming an entitlement of indefinite duration Generally, a fixed-term employment contract ends on an agreed date. However, under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 (‘the Act’) where a fixed-term employee completes or has completed his third year of continuous [...]
Vhi screening project causes problems for GPs and their patients
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dear Editor, I am writing in relation to the Vhi Healthcare Diabetes and Health Assessment Project. Like other GPs, our practice is currently receiving a lot of these reports from the local Vhi Medical Centre. However, most of the tests done have already been undertaken within my practice as a co-ordinated part of the patients’ [...]
Victims not Arthur should be remembered
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dear Editor, Dr Ruairi Hanley’s recent article on Diageo’s promotion of an annual day to commemorate the creation of Guinness (IMT, 30 July 2010, see http://www.imt.ie/opinion/2010/07/in-search-of-a-well-fair-system.html) is to be welcomed. This particular marketing ploy must be seen for what it is, and in my opinion is the same old guff that Diageo (Guinness) has been [...]
Extremely disappointed at further casualty of abbreviation
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dear Editor, In the good old days, ‘ED’ meant only one thing — erectile dysfunction — and we all knew what we were dealing with when we saw it in print. Now we have the situation where in the relatively recent past, ‘casualty’ became ‘A&E’ and then became the ‘emergency department’, hence a further ‘ED’. [...]
Controlling general practice
September 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The HSE can think again if it believes it can dictate to GPs how they provide care to their patients, says Dr Illona Duffy So, the attacks on general practice continue. The media is leaked the stories about greedy GPs and the ever altruistic Government is going to sort it all out and make sure [...]
Kicking alcohol into touch
August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Campaigners looking to break the link between sport and the alcohol industry will be disappointed by a new Department of Health report, says Dara Gantly The price of sporting events and the availability of alcohol to teenagers have dominated many family discussions this past week. First we had the IRFU insisting that fans wishing to [...]
Middle age reaches me
August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dr Ruairi Hanley gets cankerous in his old age, as he realises that whatever ‘cool factor’ he had may now be behind him Back in 2007, I had the honour of being interviewed for Hot Press magazine. In all of my 32 years, I believe this is the closest I have ever come to being [...]