The ICGP has issued a call for its Quality in Practice (QiP) Awards 2015, which recognise improvements or innovations by individuals in a general practice setting in Ireland, of a clinical or practice management nature.

The ICGP is beginning to see some real-world examples of how to use Healthmail, the new secure clinical email, in practice.

Coolock/Darndale is one of 14 locations expected to be delivered as part of a single public private partnership (PPP) contract for new primary care centres.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has submitted a paper to the Department of Health that looks at various options surrounding the possibility of reviewing the ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood.

The number of Community First Responder (CFR) schemes is set to double over the next 12 months, it emerged at the launch of a national network to support CFR schemes by the Minister for Health last week.

The first patients have been admitted to the new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) at Cork University Hospital (CUH), which is expected to significantly enhance the services that the hospital can offer to people with epilepsy in the region, particularly those with acutely unstable epilepsy and chronic disabling epilepsy.

The number of medical and dental staff in the health service has risen by 751, or 9.

Extending the medical card to everyone in the population would cost up to €3 billion and “would not work”, the Minister for Health has said.

The estimated cost of a new endoscopy unit for Naas General Hospital is in the region of €8.

An Bord Pleanála has upheld last July’s decision by Dublin City Council to grant, subject to conditions, planning permission for the change to office use of a building block in Elm Park, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, previously permitted for use partly as a private hospital.