Junior doctors are the journeymen and women of the Irish health service and without them hospitals would grind to a halt. There are currently around 4,910 employed in our hospitals and the gruelling working hours that many face have long…
Novus Medica
Medical news service from Penhire
Blog Archives
End-stage liver disease crisis in teen drinkers
Liver disease caused by drink is now a major crisis in this country with three main groups increasingly developing cirrhosis, a life-threatening condition. Men and women in their 20s who have binged on cheap strong beer, cider and spirits since…
Muiris Houston: Focus on basics of care likely to help save lives
“Failing to devise and follow a plan of care for this patient” is a fairly damning indictment of the healthcare professionals who looked after Ms Halappanavar. Essentially the investigation team is saying that communication within and between disciplines was inadequate.…
Posted in Doctors
Termination was denied at first because clinicians believed their ‘hands were tied’
Savita Halappanavar and her husband were told by clinical staff that a termination of her pregnancy was not possible because “their hands were tied” by Irish law, according to a Health Service Executive review group report. After being admitted to hospital on October…
Doctors need to know when they can intervene
“We need something in place where, if I’m a consultant, I know that no one can point the finger at me for carrying out a termination,” said UK-based obstetrician Prof Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran. Minister for Health James Reilly expressed “serious concerns” about revelations…
Irish cancer experts decry breast cancer study findings
Irish cancer experts have urged caution about a British study that appears to show that breast cancer screening programmes have yet to show a reduction in the number of women who die from the disease. The study in the Journal of…
Doctors may ballot over on-call limit
The Irish Medical Organisation says the deadline for the on-call limit which the HSE itself set, has not been met. “Twenty-four-hour call is not the same as full [directive] compliance but is one of the interim deadlines for staged compliance…
Retired consultant Michael Shine brings case to stop trial
A retired consultant surgeon accused of indecently assaulting 22 young men over a 26-year period has brought a High Court action aimed at preventing his trial. Dr Michael Shine (80) denies the charges and claims he cannot get a fair trial on…
Posted in Doctors
Roll out of diabetes eye screen delayed
Dr Diarmuid Smith, HSE national clinical lead for diabetes, said he hoped 30 per cent of eligible Irish diabetic patients would be screened in 2013, with the remaining 70 per cent in 2014, and that 100 per cent coverage could be…
40 births a day leave National Maternity Hospital struggling to cope
Pressure faced by the hospital, which is struggling to cope in an outdated building in Holles Street in Dublin, is outlined in a report by the master, Dr Rhona Mahony. Dr Mahony’s report points out that the hospital’s current volume…
Doctors struck off register
Two doctors found guilty of professional misconduct have been struck off the medical register. The High Court has confirmed two decisions of the Medical Council to remove Siad Zia, aged 40, and Chidozie Onovo, 43, from the register of doctors…
Doctors should make any pro-life views clear, says ethics expert
Women will have to ask their doctor’s views on abortion if changes to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill demanded by medical ethicist Dr Donal O’Mathuna are made. Dr O’Mathuna said the referral dimension of the proposed legislation needed…
Gerry Burke on raising money to build new maternity hospitals
€100 million in capital for the Limerick project equates to about €10 per annum for 26 years for each of the 378,000 citizens of the Mid-West region. If that were to be collected through the progressive Local Property Tax system,…
Arcane principle behind traditional teaching on gynaecology and ethics is bad philosophy
James Mackey reminded readers recently, on these pages, of a distinction taught to generations of clerical and medical students in Ireland, between causing the death of a foetus “directly and intentionally” and doing so indirectly. This distinction is borrowed from medieval…
Doctors’ union to recommend acceptance of public sector pay deal
The leadership of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), the representative body for doctors, tonight agreed that it will recommend its members accept the Haddington Road proposal. The union will now put the proposal to a ballot of its members in…
Fred English on access to med school for graduates
What was envisaged as a strategy to modernise Irish medical education has reverted to one affording access only to those with means. The Government and the university sector must remain conscious of their societal responsibility to provide access to medicine…
Malcolm Kell on breast cancer prevention
There is no single best choice of breast reconstruction, the “gold standard” is to discuss all available options with patients and make sure that the type of reconstruction which best suits an individual patient is undertaken. (Irish Times) >
An unhealthy system badly in need of reform
Reported comments some weeks ago attributed to Prof Michael O’Keeffe went so far as to say private patients who spend time on chairs or trolleys are being fraudulently billed for use of private beds. One can only wonder if the…
Call over Bahrain medical college
The Ceartas group has claimed the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Bahrain (RCSI-Bahrain) has been overseeing the teaching of medics in the troubled Arab state while some patients are tortured and doctors imprisoned. Reports from Medecins Sans Frontieres, the US-based Physicians for Human…
Initiatives to support those living with dementia
A Memory Resource Room where people concerned about memory loss can talk to health professionals is just one of a number of North Cork initiatives designed to support dementia patients and their families. The other is the Crystal Project which…
Maternity hospital move is good news for mothers and babies
Dr Rhona Mahony, the master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin, spoke yesterday of how upset she feels for mothers who must endure the crowded conditions in its building dating from the 19th Century. It is the…
Kieran Murphy: Medical council’s effectiveness depends on the work of others within the health system
New standards for the education and training of doctors in Ireland have been established which benchmark favourably against the highest standards internationally. We know that doctors who display unprofessional behaviour at medical school are more likely to continue to demonstrate…
GPs win award for drug ‘alert’ card
A project designed to promote safer use of a potentially deadly medication has won a quality award. Designed by Cork GPs Dr Diarmuid Quinlan and Dr Paul Ryan, the project involves a high-vis “alert” card, the same size as a…
Suicide risk for men under 21 is four times higher
The ‘Suicide in Ireland 2003-2008′ study has found evidence to suggest that as many as half of all suicides happen in clusters, where there is a series of deaths in one location over a short time period. Of 104 cases…
New IVF therapy ‘will boost couples’ success rate by 50pc’
Experts have described the new method – which will be available here for the first time – as the “biggest fertility breakthrough for decades”. Professor Simon Fishel, who is collaborating with the Beacon Clinic in Sandyford, Dublin, said the new…
Eamon O’Dwyer: exclude abortion for suicide ideation from the proposed legislation
As a consultant obstetrician / gynaecologist, initially at the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin and thereafter at University Hospital, Galway, with responsibility for almost 100,000 confinements, I did not encounter a single case of suicide. If, instead of strengthening the Medical…
New hip replacement therapy halves hospital time, says surgeon
An innovative form of hip-replacement therapy, which cuts time in hospital in half, should be rolled out across the health service, an orthopaedic surgeon has said. Derek Bennett said the programme known as Rapid Recovery, which originated in Denmark, amounts to a…
