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Opinion: March 2008

Healthy comment

30 March 2008 | Editorial

Terence Cosgrave admires Garret FitzGerald's recent comments on the reasons why Ireland has such a poor health service. The reluctance of the mainstream media to write about the real issues of the health service is one of the problems that... Read more

Advice for Prof Drumm, Prof Keane and Minister Mary Harney

30 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, Gareth Hayes’s recent critique in Irish Medical Times of the proposed new cervical smear contract should be compulsory reading for Prof. Brendan Drumm, Prof. Tom Keane, Mary Harney and the undoubted plethora of managers who would be involved... Read more

New 'Quacktitioners' cannot replace doctors

Dr Joyce Galbraith | 27 March 2008 | Guests

Dr Joyce Galbraith writes about the lack of faith in the health service that is affecting both patients and doctors. The recent non-stop and ongoing stream of complaints from patients and relatives trying to grapple with the deficiencies of the... Read more

A handful of open letters to fancy car drivers

26 March 2008 | The Inside Back

Dear Cozy Leather SUV Entertainment Complex, How many children do you need watching ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ in the dozen screens of that ridiculous boat of a vehicle to realise that you have failed as a human being? Or is that why... Read more

Councils show no confidence in HSE

Mick Molloy | 26 March 2008 | Mick Molloy

The HSE appears to be coming in for a lot of criticism from local authorities, with numerous motions of no confidence being passed in recent weeks and yet more calls for its disbandment. Another council, Wexford County Council, has followed... Read more

What's the 'link' in warfarin?

Nollaig Rowan | 23 March 2008 | Guests

Nollaig Rowan recalls the curious history behind the naming and patenting of the anticoagulant drug warfarin - and its origins in the bovine world In a Dublin restaurant last summer, a friend pushed aside his salad and spinach and declined... Read more

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

Dr C. Dupont | 22 March 2008 | Guests

Dr C. Dupont reflects on medical educators of the past - who often had their own idiosyncratic ways of teaching medicine... Read more

'No Go' in Angola

20 March 2008 | Editorial

Terence Cosgrave says there are good reasons to believe that the Department of Health discussed the return of the health boards. The Irish Times reported last week that the Department of Health had held high-level discussions about the future of... Read more

Modern patients will demand more efficiency

Mark Hannon | 20 March 2008 | Mark Hannon

Dr Mark Hannon says that modern life demands means doctors must improve on the service they offer patients. Every day at work I spend a few hours engaged in a pursuit which few lay people would imagine that doctors ever... Read more

Harrowing experience for overseas doctors

Mick Molloy | 19 March 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy writes about the administrative and registration nightmares faced by many overseas doctors after they arrive in Ireland to start work on short-term contracts. Moving to Ireland can be a harrowing experience for some medics, particularly so for... Read more

Prescribing in the UK not quite what Hannon suggests

18 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, I certainly agree with the main thrust of Dr Mark Hannon’s piece on drugs [‘Drugs and the truth behind the headlines’, IMT 19 Feb. See www.imt.ie/opinion/2008/02/drugs_and_the_truth_behind_the.html] but I need to point out two wee errors… Errors which just... Read more

GP prescribing not safe for elderly?

18 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, Age Action is concerned by two recent studies which found that older patients in Ireland were receiving inappropriate medications. We believe that the findings must result in a review being undertaken into the on-going pharmacological training received by... Read more

NCSS 'grateful' for Dr Hayes' feedback

18 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, I refer to the letter from Dr Garrett Hayes setting out his submission to the NCSS in response to our call for comments on the Draft Smear Taker Contract. The NCSS is grateful to Dr Hayes and the... Read more

Express train to hell

18 March 2008 | The Inside Back

Nobody will be left to witness it: in 7.59 billion years, the earth, incinerating as it crashes out of orbit, is engulfed by a sun 256 times its current size and 2,730 times as bright - a red giant, devouring... Read more

Hand-washing HSE

14 March 2008 | Editorial

There is an acceptance by most people that someday, they are going to die. With the exception of Death Row inmates and suicides, we all have in common that fact, and that none of us know exactly when. We all... Read more

Who is Ireland's oldest doctor?

14 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, I would like to ask for your help to find the oldest doctor in Ireland. Please ask your readers to nominate their candidate for the ‘Ireland’s Oldest Working Person’ awards 2008. In association with Friends of the Elderly... Read more

Council elections loom

Dr Seán Ó Domhnaill, | 14 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, As you have recently reported, the appointment of the new Medical Council in its new format, with a politically-appointed majority, is to take place within the next six weeks. The new Council will have 12 medical representatives and... Read more

Medical Council's decision is overturned by High Court

Ed Madden | 14 March 2008 | Guests

Ed Madden BL looks at a High Court case in which the Court cancelled a finding of the Medical Council that a pathologist in the Army Medical Corp was guilty of professional misconduct. On 10 April 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Michael... Read more

Questions over Portlaoise affair

14 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, The conclusion by Dr Ann O’Doherty in her report on Portlaoise that “the safety, quality and standard of many aspects of breast imaging service…fell well below achievable best imaging practice and that this resulted in a significant and... Read more

Delicate issues behind organ donation rates

Mick Molloy | 11 March 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy writes on the many ethical considerations behind organ donation and takes a look at the different systems for providing consent. The concept of organ donation is not one we think about much except possibly when issued with... Read more

'Ides of March' don't bode well for chemists

Kealan Flynn | 11 March 2008 | Kealan Flynn

Kealan Flynn writes about the continuing dispute between community chemists, the HSE and the Minister for Health, which may yet trigger a mass exodus from the GMS scheme. In the Roman world, the most infamous of the Ides fell on... Read more

Lack of opportunity sends graduates abroad

Dr Mark Hannon | 07 March 2008 | Mark Hannon

Dr Mark Hannon writes that unless a number of significant problems are addressed, medical training in Ireland will struggle to maintain high standards and keep up its reputation internationally Once again, Spring is upon us and this can mean only... Read more

HSE's false economy means patients suffer

Dr Mick Molloy | 05 March 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy queries the false economy of not replacing staff when going on long-term leave, which often results in growing backlog and the delaying of elective procedures The current financial constraints applying in the health services make it difficult... Read more

GPs need support

Terrence Cosgrave | 05 March 2008 | Editorial

Having had the experience of meeting a good number of GPs from Munster and south Leinster this week at the Irish Medical Times’ seminar in Cork, it struck me that many GPs plough a lonely furrow and need to have... Read more

Reader unimpressed with ageist attitude

05 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, I witnessed your appearance on ‘TV3 Nightly News with Vincent Browne’ last week and I must say — as the mother of several doctors — I was disappointed to see the Editor of Irish Medical Times refer to... Read more

Draft contract 'should be binned'

05 March 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, The Irish Cancer Screening Service has issued a draft contract for GPs on its web site and had invited GPs to respond before 28th February 2008. (IMT readers can view the contract at http://www.icsp.ie/about_us/the_national_cancer_screening_service__board.450.html). I have spent some... Read more

Doomsday seedbank opens in Norway; all eggs in one basket

05 March 2008 | The Inside Back

This is creepy. A 'doomsday' seed vault had its ceremonial opening in Norway last week, deep within an Arctic mountain in a remote archipelago, with an entrance 130 metres above sea level. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (www.seedvault.no), financed by... Read more