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Opinion: May 2008

Love is back in the air — the experts debate

31 May 2008 | The Inside Back

One of my single(ish) female friends, urging a (very) single male friend to try meeting a mate on the internet, told him: “Online dating isn’t just for losers anymore.” I think she’s probably right – the singles scene is complex... Read more

Emergency situation

28 May 2008 | Editorial

Mary Anne Kenny asks if emergency department overcrowding has fallen down the HSE's priority list. Sickness is the world’s great leveller. All any patient wants is for a doctor to tell them what’s wrong and make them better. I saw... Read more

Six-point plan for a better health service

28 May 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, Despite the promises made by Health Minister Mary Harney when she set it up, the HSE has shifted from patient care to being budget driven. It is time to put the patient back at the centre of the... Read more

Walk-in service still open

28 May 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, An article published in Irish Medical Journal April 2008, Vol 101, No 4, ( 116-118) may have conveyed the impression that the walk-in service for ophthalmic emergencies to the Accident and Emergency of the Royal Victoria Eye and... Read more

Ageist poster campaign is seriously flawed

28 May 2008 | Letters

Dear Editor, The Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Council on Ageing and Older People and the Equality Authority should immediately withdraw their current series of offensive and inappropriate posters. The extraordinarily insensitive posters, part of the ‘Say No... Read more

The tragedy of ageing alone in this country

Mark Hannon | 28 May 2008 | Mark Hannon

Dr Mark Hannon on the fact that although nursing home costs continue to spiral, fewer younger people are willing to care for their elderly relatives. Much as we hate to admit it, we are all getting older by the day.... Read more

Future consultants' vote can clinch contract

Mick Molloy | 27 May 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy on the importance of the result of the IMO specialist registrars' vote on the consultants contract. It’s almost finished – after four years in the making, soon we will find out if consultants will vote to accept... Read more

An Irish 'New Deal' on health

By Terence Cosgrave | 23 May 2008 | Editorial

At the height of the Great Depression in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States and delivered an inaugural address that was one of the finest ever delivered - and certainly one of the best-known until John... Read more

GP training needs to be expanded

Kevin Quinn | 22 May 2008 | Guests

Dr Kevin Quinn, Chairman of the MICGP exam sub-committee and a GP on Arranmore Island says that though we have a good system of training GPs, we are not training enough of them. Ireland is fortunate to have a high... Read more

Pharmacy contract can help unite primary health services

Kealan Flynn | 21 May 2008 | Kealan Flynn

In the first of two articles, Kealan Flynn outlines a number of important principles that should underpin the process of drawing up the new community pharmacy contract. The tendency of any military is always to fight the last war. The... Read more

Health atrocities solved

21 May 2008 | Guests

Prof Tom O'Dowd, Professor of General Practice at Trinity College Dublin, on how best to finance the Irish healthcare system — and solve several problems in the process. When yet another violent incident occurred in Northern Ireland, the media would... Read more

Inside Back prepares to fail his driving test

20 May 2008 | The Inside Back

Next month, I sit my first ever Irish driving exam; and I become that sad national caricature – the thirty-something going for a first full licence. I am disconsolate. I’ve been driving (in the US) since I was 14 years... Read more

How to fix the health service with GPs

20 May 2008 | Guests

Dr James Reilly, GP and Fine Gael spokesperson on Health details what he would do if he were Minister for Health to solve Ireland's many healthcare problems. The problems of health are myriad but basically it comes down to two... Read more

Training increases needed

19 May 2008 | Guests

Mr Fionan O'Cuinneagáin outlines the current structure for GP training and how places need to be increased to meet future demand from demographic trends in the population and among doctors. There are 13 GP Specialist Training Programmes in Ireland, offering... Read more

Time to make your voices heard

Terence Cosgrave | 19 May 2008 | Editorial

Terence Cosgrave writes that at a time of great change in our health service, GPs are at the coalface of community care and must play a major role in directing the necessary changes. As this year’s annual general meeting of... Read more

The sound of silence

19 May 2008 | Editorial

In last week’s Irish Medical Times, we carried on our front page a story about older people who are in ‘de facto imprisonment’ in nursing homes — held there without any legal basis and despite their own wishes. The story... Read more

Tourism, video and the death of all experience

Greg Baxter | 19 May 2008 | The Inside Back

Tourism is a disease of the soul. It’s the third fundament-alism. It drives homogeneity across the globe like a weed that devegetates every landscape it encounters. And it’s the habitat of the obnoxious semi-rich, who would rather have things exactly... Read more

Joined-up thinking is the only way forward

Mark Hannon | 14 May 2008 | Mark Hannon

Dr Mark Hannon believes that in a country as small as Ireland, we must consider our health service from a national, and not a local, point of view. I recently travelled to Germany for a few days for a meeting.... Read more

Will changes in cabinet lead to any real change?

Mick Molloy | 13 May 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy on the challenges facing the new goverment as it faces into an era of less money and even higher expectations from the public on health... Read more

Home hospitals work - for now

Dr Mick Molloy | 09 May 2008 | Mick Molloy

Dr Mick Molloy hopes that the 'Hospital in the home' service - which actually works - won't be dismantled or hampered by HSE management Services to patients in the community should be protected, no matter what is happening to budgets... Read more

HSE knows jaw-jaw is better than war-war with pharmacists

Kealan Flynn | 09 May 2008 | Kealan Flynn

Kealan Flynn on the truce that seems to have been reached between the HSE and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, which now depends on the recommendations of an Independent Body The deadlock in the long-running dispute between community chemists and the... Read more

The sad and lonely gamboling life of (captive) gay animals

07 May 2008 | The Inside Back

War Emblem, the 2002 winner of America’s greatest horse race, the Kentucky Derby, is in the closet and he can’t get out. It’s no fun to be a gay stallion. Life for War Emblem, at the Shadai Stallion Station on... Read more