By Lloyd Mudiwa The requirement for valid and genuine consent to be obtained extends to all interventions on service users in all locations, according to a new draft National Consent Policy, which tries to provide standard guidance to both medical and healthcare practitioners and patients on the process of seeking consent.

By Lloyd Mudiwa A new division, the Social Care Division, has been established in the Department of Health incorporating the functions of two formerly separate offices, the Office for Disability and Mental Health and the Office for Older People.

By Gary Culliton Matters are being finalised with one hospital in relation to the new hospital penalties regime, it has emerged, following previous  action at another hospital, UCHG in Galway – the only hospital which did not meet the 12 month waits target by the end of last year.

By Gary Culliton A new scrub suit automation initiative at St James’s Hospital in Dublin has resulted in savings of €100,000 per annum.

By Lloyd Mudiwa The burden of Hib disease is shifting from being mainly a childhood disease to one that affects adults and infants, epidemiology trends of the virus for the fourth quarter of 2011 have revealed.

By Lloyd Mudiwa There may be some data protection considerations for vendors based outside Ireland interested in participating in a reworked Health Atlas contract recently floated by the HSE, Irish Medical Times reports.

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Ed Madden, BL, looks at a case in which a nurse brought Judicial Review proceedings in the High Court in London in an effort to prevent the Nursing and Midwifery Council from setting aside an earlier decision that she had no case to answer in respect of allegations concerning the care of a patient in a nursing home.

Dear Editor, The news that yet another advisory board on fluoride, this time involving the shortly-to-be-abolished HSE, is to be established by the Department of Health is yet further evidence of a Health Minister and Department worryingly out of touch (Irish Medical Times, May 18, 2012).

Dr Paul Carson, Dublin GP and board member of the Irish Lung Foundation, explains the need for practical and useful tips on the correct management of co-existing rhino-sinusitis and asthma