Cuts to GP fees imposed by the Government had been sneakily implemented, a Tullow GP has charged.

IHCA President Dr Gerard Crotty has said there was an urgent need to address clinical indemnification costs in order to ensure the availability of care to patients.

IHCA members who are actively considering retirement should write to their employer’s superannuation office and request confirmation in writing of their reckonable service, including professional added years and an estimate of their pension and lump sum for specified retirement dates, the Association has recommended.

There are some 59 vacant consultant posts in various specialties in the Dublin North East (DNE) region alone, 46 of them currently filled by locums and 13 with no cover whatsoever, IMT reports.

The medical manpower recruitment crisis risks causing long-term damage to the quality of patient care, the IHCA has warned.

Concussion is one of the public health issue of our time and the most common form of brain injury, according to brain injury specialists Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Ireland.

The IMO has expressed its concern to the Minister for Health that a universal GP service is being “phased in by age parameters”.

A team of three international experts has been appointed by Health Minister Leo Varadkar to evaluate Ireland’s current national cancer strategy and to provide advice for a follow-up plan.

HIQA has published national guidelines on the retrieval and interpretation of economic evaluations of health technologies and updated national guidelines on the clinical effectiveness of health technologies, which the health watchdog believes will play a significant role in delivering safer better healthcare.

The IMO is to ballot members on Labour Relations Commission (LRC) proposals for a new consultants pay scale, following agreement with health service employers that changes to the terms for clinical directors will only apply to consultants appointed on the 30 per cent reduced salary scale.