Terence Cosgrave says that we have become complacent about respiratory disease in this country since the introduction of the smoking ban – which never was the final solution to the health problems caused by tobacco in any case. While we are sitting in our smoke-free pubs and restaurants congratulating ourselves on our smoke-free environments, we [...]
Dr Mick Molloy says that as recruitment for training-scheme positions get under way, there is a cause for concern across the health service This is normally the time of year when applications for training-scheme positions are advertised and interviews take place. In recent weeks, I have had some very interesting conversations with doctors. The thrust [...]
Dear Editor, I am intrigued by your front-page article (22 Feb) on INR testing in general practice using a Coaguchek meter. Your correspondent quotes a rural GP in Castletownbere as stating that her 532 annual INR tests cost her a whopping €9,380. Ouch! Must be some mistake here. A single Coaguchek stick costs about €5, [...]
Dear Editor, I write in relation to Greg Baxter’s article in Irish Medical Times of 14 December 2007 on ‘Nurse prescribing has radical implications’. The writer tried to reassure with the statement that consultant trainers who face liability for mistakes made by nurse prescribers are covered under the Clinical Indemnity Scheme. What about the patient [...]
Dear Editor, In the 15 February issue of Irish Medical Times, in the classified advertisements section, I see that there are 26 advertisements seeking GPs and three advertisements from GPs seeking employment. If this is a reflection of GP supply and demand it is, to my mind, a cause for concern. Dr John Brangan, Salem [...]
Kealan Flynn reports on the Irish Pharmaceutical Union’s continued resistance to the new wholesale prices regime for medicines, which is due to be implemented on 1 March As the 1 March deadline approaches for a new wholesale prices regime for medicines, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) is fighting a determined rearguard action to thwart a [...]
John McCain, the Republican party’s candidate for US President, has stated several times that terrorism (he also uses extremism or religious extremism) is the transcendent challenge of the 21st century. A very bad problem becomes a “transcendent challenge”, presumably, when all signs point to the imminent annihilation of society as we know it, unless an [...]
Dr Robert Sullivan looks at the fascinating figure of Claudius Galen, one of the founding fathers of medicine, whose legacy divides medical opinion today as much as his practices did in Roman times Medicine, like all professions, has its heroes and villains. Galen is remarkable in that countless people have argued over the category to [...]
Thecla Scully reports on a WHO project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that sees local farmers trained to carry out simple medical tasks Dense rainforest covers a large portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Only a naïve explorer would attempt to navigate the spindly tracks connecting the tiny villages where most of the [...]
Dear Editor, I was dismayed to read yet another example of the deceit practised within the medical profession around the issue of prenatal screening and abortion (‘A case of optimism in obstetrics.’ 25.01.08). I have no problem that a woman requests antenatal screening with the intention of seeking an abortion in the event of serious [...]
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