Hospital Medicine

The Master and Deputy Chairman of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles St have said they hope the hospital is re-located to St Vincent’s University Hospital following the review of maternity services in Dublin, currently underway by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Health Service Executive’s (HSE’s) Acute Hospital Bed Use Review, which found that 13 per cent of patients were inappropriately admitted to hospital, was based on a measurement tool that may not be relevant to Ireland, the Assistant Secretary General of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned.

A six-hour waiting time limit for patients in the country’s emergency departments is achievable and must be implemented as quickly as possible, according to the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM).

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has denied claims by the former Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) President, Dr Christine O’Malley, that bed managers are preventing inter-hospital transfers of seriously ill patients.

The average cost of treating a person in hospital falls after the age of 70, new research has indicated.

The Decision by the Minister for Health to withhold the 2 per cent pay rise for consultants under benchmarking has been described by the Secretary General of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) as nothing more than an “irritant”.

Junior doctors have been involved in car accidents because some NCHD residences are too far away from hospitals where they are on call, it has been claimed.

The recent case of Rebecca O’Malley, the mother who found out she had breast cancer 14 months after being told by Cork University Hospital (CUH) her biopsy was normal, may not have taken place if official quality assurance guidelines were in place in the numerous breast cancer units around the country.

Trolley counts in large hospitals’ accident and emergency departments are being artificially reduced by refusing to admit seriously ill patients from other hospitals, the former Irish Medical Organisation President, Dr Christine O’Malley, has said.

In the ground breaking report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care published in 2001, chairman Dr Tony O’Brien writes: “success… will be judged by the extent to which we all learn to recognise and respond to the complex and challenging needs of our palliative care patients and their families.