Category Archives: News

Letter from HSE requesting a stop on Locum Doctor Recruitment

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A&E Locum recruitment stopped

A&E Locum recruitment stopped

Hospitals across the country have received a letter from the HSE stipulating that they must stop recruiting locums to fill vacancies in emergency medicine, according to the Irish Medical News (IMN)

However, a senior consultant in emergency medicine has questioned the HSE’s contention that the recent recruitment drive in India and Pakistan has “solved” the need for locum cover in emergency departments (EDs). It is understood that the memo, sent by Ms Laverne McGuinness, the HSE’s National Director of Performance and Financial Management, on October 25, has caused particular issues at University Hospital Limerick where there has been an ongoing shortage of middle grade doctors to staff its ED. Dr Fergal Hickey, former president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) and a consultant in emergency medicine at Sligo General Hospital, told IMN that due to the recruitment drive for doctors from India and Pakistan, the HSE believes “there is now no need for locum cover”.

According to Dr Hickey, vacancies in EDs are mainly at registrar grade, however, he said that the HSE “seems to believe that very junior, very inexperienced doctors from India and Pakistan recruitment schemes” are adequate to fill these vacancies or that doctors can be arbitrarily transferred from other services. The HSE responded saying that “significant savings” can be made by filling posts that are currently filled by locums with doctors recruited through the drive in India and Pakistan. However, Dr Hickey contended that there is “a clear lack of understanding at senior management level in the HSE about where the vacancies in emergency medicine are and the calibre of doctors required to fill these vacancies”. “Our main vacancies are at middle grade whereas the available doctors from this particular recruitment drive are at a more junior level, so the problem will continue,” he said. Dr Hickey said that HSE management “think that they have solved the recruitment crisis, which clearly they haven’t”.

Dr Hickey said that neither the HSE nor the Department of Health understands the mismatch between existing vacancies and the doctors who have been recruited from India and Pakistan, who do not have “the experience or expertise” necessary. The HSE told IMN that doctors recruited in India and Pakistan are highly qualified and experienced and “are particularly well suited to working in the Irish health system” as they train in the same system used in Ireland. According to Dr Hickey, this is a “naive” perception. “A middle grade doctor working in the ED might have three or four years experience in the Irish healthcare system, and a year or more in an ED,” he explained. “And they’re seeking naively to replace those with people who have just literally arrived in the country.”

An Irish Doctor recounts 9/11

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In memory of 9/11

In memory of 9/11

On the 10th anniversary of this Global tragedy, we remember all who suffered that day and since as a result of the Twin Tower attack in New York.

Dr Muiris Houston recalls his own personal experience of 9/11, and how he was only 350 miles away on assignment in the city of Toronto, Canada, when the terrorists attacked.

 

It is an absolute given: the events of 9/11 irrevocably changed the course of world affairs since the terrorist atrocity took place 10 years ago this week.

As well as the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, one can relate the incredible debt problems presently affecting the US, at least in part, to the fiscal demands of fighting global terrorism.

Mind you, as a new book, Eleventh Day, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan points out, Iran and Saudi Arabia were probably more culpable in the run up to 9/11 than Saddam Hussein was, but sin scéal eile.

For me personally, the events of that fateful morning are even more deeply etched in my brain cells because I was on assignment for The Irish Times in Toronto, Canada.

Former editor, Conor Brady, was keen to run a week-long series on the health service, with a particular emphasis on how Ireland compared with other countries, such as France, Germany, the UK and Canada.

I was delighted to take on the Canadian assignment; I had worked for three months in Newfoundland in the 1980s and was (and still am) a keen fan of the country’s egalitarian approach to health and social issues.

Earlier that week I looked in depth at cancer and cardiac services in a number of the city’s teaching hospitals, greatly facilitated by Dave McCutcheon, the former CEO of Tallaght Hospital who was running Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital at the time. I had also researched primary care and emergency services and now it was time to talk to the politicians and bureaucrats.

Ministerial cancellation
On September 11, I had an early-morning appointment with the Minister for Health for Ontario. When I arrived at the ministry I was asked to wait while officials raced around me in what can only be described as a controlled frenzy. Sensing something unusual was afoot, I sat in reception trying to figure out what was going on.

Eventually I was told the Minister couldn’t see me because of a developing situation in New York, which was likely to require the transfer of large numbers of burns patients to hospitals in Ontario. At this point I knew nothing about an aircraft flying into the first of the Twin Towers. So I left and wandered in to the nearest hotel to get a cup of tea and to reorganise my day. The Toronto International Film Festival was on at the time and so I joined a throng of people watching TV in the lounge.

On the television one of the Twin Towers was burning. Tuning in to the conversations around me, I learned that a large aircraft had flown into the building. Initially people spoke as if it had been an unfortunate air accident, but it was quickly pointed out by commentators that the flight path looked more deliberate than accidental.

Terror struck
More and more people arrived, and at one point I looked to my left and saw a famous actor beside me. His instantly recognisable trademark malevolent look was staring at the TV with absolute venom. In response to a number of comments on the TV indicating we were witnessing a terrorist attack on New York, and as we watched George Bush being told about the event in front of children at a school he was visiting, the actor snarled at the TV. “Nuke the b******s!,” he said, before marching from the room.

Of course, the situation got far worse with the aircraft hitting the Pentagon and the President being whisked off to Air Force One to ride out any further attacks. Fascination turned to fear; strangely, it was the closure of all North American airspace that shook me most. Here I was on the far side of the Atlantic, due to travel home in 48 hours, with some people openly speculating about World War 3. As I walked from the hotel, I wondered if the QE2 still did transatlantic trips.

That night found me curled up on a sofa, glued to the TV in the basement of a college classmate’s house in the Toronto suburbs. Staying with Frances and Paul was so much more bearable than a lonely hotel room on that apocalyptic night.

In the end, I was on the first British Airways flight to leave Toronto after the airspace was reopened that weekend. But the new reality hit home when we got to Heathrow. Armed police officers questioned us individually as we emerged from the plane. And the luggage I had checked through to Shannon had now to be picked up in a Heathrow car park and rechecked in person onto the Aer Lingus flight.
The post 9/11 world order had commenced.

A sad farewell to Brian Lenihan

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A sad Farewell to Brian Lenihan

A sad Farewell to Brian Lenihan

The deputy leader of Fianna Fail and former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, has died of pancreatic cancer.

He was 52.

Mr Lenihan was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas at the end of 2009 when he was Minister for Finance under the former Fianna Fail-led government. He confirmed the diagnosis in a statement in January 2010.

 Despite undergoing intensive treatment for the disease, he continued in the job under former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.

He later contested the Fianna Fail leadership after Mr Cowen’s resignation, but lost out to Micheal Martin.

Mr Lenihan was first elected to the Dail in 1996, following a by-election caused by the death of his father. He served the constituency of Dublin West. He became Minister for Justice in 2007, before being made Minister for Finance in 2008.

His time in the finance office will be remembered for among other things, tough budgets, the foundation of NAMA, the bank guarantee scheme and the signing of the EU/IMF bailout.

In the election earlier this year, he was the only Fianna Fail TD to retain his seat in Dublin. Since then, he had been serving as deputy leader of Fianna Fail and the party’s finance spokesperson, however his health had severely deteriorated in recent weeks.

In a statement, Micheal Martin said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by Mr Lenihan’s death, who he described as having fought a ‘brave and courageous battle’ with a serious illness over the past 18 months.

“In all of this time, Brian never once flinched from his public duties and he showed an unceasing and untiring commitment to tackling the economic crisis facing this country. Even when receiving debilitating treatment, Brian continued to work assiduously in the best interests of this country,” Mr Martin said.

He added that as a ministerial colleague, Mr Lenihan ‘had my complete admiration’.

“He was quite simply brilliant and often in a league of his own.”

Mr Lenihan died early on June 10 in his west Dublin home. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and two teenage children. (IrishHealth.com)

Congratulations Mini Marathoners!

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flora-mini-marathon

To all the fabulous women that completed the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon yesterday we offer a huge congratulations! Hold your medal up high and say “Well Done to Me”!!

Well done to you all, it was a fantastic achievement!

As a participant myself, stiff legs and aching limbs make for a very tired lady this morning but nevertheless we should be so proud of ourselves and all the fundraising that has gone alongside the day itself.

Monday 6th June 2011 is a day to be remembered with just over 40,000 joggers and walkers…. with a good few “men in tights” joining us all and putting a little smile on our faces!

Charities of all shapes and sizes were represented with a vast array of coloured shirts, which in itself was mesmerising – particularly at the 6km marker and coming down the fly-over at UCD. It was right at that point that was so breath-taking and seeing exactly how many people care that much to participate in such an event!

So many worthwhile causes had a representative yesterday, everyone from regional Cancer Support Groups and respite centres, to Temple Street Hospital, to Crumlin, to Motor-Neurons to name a few!

After yesterdays efforts, I think the one thing we can say about the people of our country is that although there are people in need of medical treatmentwithin the walls of our hospitals, we are a nation that deeply cares about both the welfare of our people and the organisations who are trying to help them with their struggles in life. And Monday 6th June 2011 is testament to that.

Whether you walked, jogged or skipped, whether you fundraised for a respite centre, a childrens hospital, a cancer support group, or something more specific like Motor Neurons Disease, yesterday has proved that we are a nation that cares intensely and has now shown this nationally that we are more than willing to do our fair share to contribute to such fantastic causes.

To the Women of the Flora Mini Marathon of 2011 – Congratulations! You have done everyone of this country proud!

HSE Nursing Homes can charge over €2,000 per week

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And what of our Elderly?

And what of our Elderly?

Nursing homes run by the HSE are charging weekly fees of up to €2,139, it emerged yesterday, according to the Irish Independent.

However, it remains unclear how much an elderly person who needs to be admitted to one of these homes will have to pay if they have not been approved for a State subsidy under the Fair Deal scheme.

Confusion reigned yesterday after it emerged that the HSE, which has a budget of over €1bn to fund long-stay care this year, said this was only enough to cater for the existing 22,908 patients who were in public and private nursing homes under the scheme.

Under the Fair Deal scheme, nursing-home residents pay 80pc of their income and 5pc of the value of their assets annually for up to three years. The payments can be made either in their lifetimes or deducted from their estates after death.

But the HSE said it had drained its funding for 2011 and all new applicants would have to go on a waiting list.

Asked what would happen if an elderly person needed an emergency admission to a nursing home, a spokesperson for the HSE said they were likely to be admitted to an acute hospital or respite bed. Up to 700 long-stay patients are currently in acute beds.

The average weekly cost of a public nursing-home bed is €1,245, but it can be much higher. The weekly cost of private nursing-home care is €875 but it can be as high as €1,344.

The HSE said yesterday that 11,836 people had so far been cleared for financial support under the Fair Deal scheme and another 4,225 were receiving a subvention or were in a contracted bed. The remaining 6,400 were outside the scheme, paying 80pc of their pensions or allowances.

The HSE said the average weekly support under Fair Deal scheme per resident was €675 a week but a combination of rising demand and costs has led to it having to put a cap on the numbers it can accept for the subsidy.

However, Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland said yesterday he estimated at least €200m had been paid by nursing-home residents to the HSE, on top of the €1bn funding.

Anxiety

“The cost drivers are coming from the public rather than the private sector,” he said. “Public-home costs are 40pc higher than the private homes. This crisis needs to be addressed quickly — there is huge anxiety out there.” Most elderly people in residential care are in private nursing homes.

Minister for Health Dr James Reilly said he was notified of the crisis in the middle of last week and was having urgent talks to try to resolve the situation.

He questioned why costs were so much higher for running public nursing homes and was gathering the facts with a view to coming up with a plan of action

Poor job – Poor health

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Fed up with your job?

Fed up with your job?

Being in a badly paid job with little or no support can be as bad for your mental health as having no job at all, the results of a new study indicate. (IrishHealth.com)

According to Australian researchers, because being in work is associated with better mental health than unemployment, government policies have tended to focus on the risks posed by joblessness, without necessarily considering the impact the quality of a job may have.

 

They collected data on over 7,000 people of working age. The participants’ mental health was assessed and they were asked about their employment status.

For those who worked, the ‘psychosocial’ quality of their job was graded according to measures related to demands and complexity, level of control and perceived job security. Respondents were also asked if they felt they received fair pay for the work they did.

Not unexpectedly, the study found that those who were unemployed had poorer mental health overall compared to those in work.

However, after taking account of a range of factors with the potential to influence the results, such as educational attainment and marital status, the mental health of those who were jobless was comparable to, or often better than, that of people who worked, but were in poor quality jobs.

Those in the poorest quality jobs experienced the sharpest decline in mental health over time. Furthermore, there was a direct link between the number of unfavourable working conditions experienced and mental health, with each additional adverse condition lowering the mental health score.

The researchers from the Australian National University noted that there is some evidence to show that employment is associated with better physical and mental health and the mental health of those out of work tends to improve when they find a job.

However, in this study, they found that the health benefits of finding a job after a period of unemployment depended on the quality of the post. In other words, job quality predicted mental health.

Getting a high quality job after being unemployed improved mental health by an average of three points, but getting a poor quality job was more detrimental to mental health than remaining unemployed, resulting in a loss of 5.6 points.

The researchers pointed out that paid work confers several benefits, including a defined social role and purpose, friendships and structured time. But jobs which afford little control, are very demanding, or provide little support and reward, are not good for mental health, they insisted.

“Work first policies are based on the notion that any job is better than none as work promotes economic as well as personal wellbeing. Psychosocial job quality is a pivotal factor that needs to be considered in the design and delivery of employment and welfare policy,” the team concluded.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Medical Card Savings for HSE

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Medical Card Savings

Medical Card Savings

€76 million is the figure given for the amount of saving made as per the December 2010 Performance Report, due to spending on medical cards and other drug schemes in 2010.

These new figures have come about due to profiles of medical card holders being “less expensive than the budgeted profile”, it has been said. The Drug Payment Scheme has also been attributed to producing these savings.

The current number of medical card holders in Ireland is now just over 1.615 million, which is below that of target projections of 1.622 million. Last year alone 137,000 were granted the medical card. Where the numbers of GP visit cards is 3% over projections, it lies at 117,000.

Good news for HSE savings and the waiting time to process applications has also decreased.

The history of the Vibrator – A Medical Device?

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The Vibrator - a Medical Device?

The Vibrator - a Medical Device?

The history of the Vibrator is indeed a very old and interesting one!

There is a section in the London Science Museum especially dedicated which shows over 40 types of vibrators from the late 1800′s to the early 1900′s!

The Vibrator has also recently been brought to stage Productions of – ‘In the next room’ by Darah Ruhl on Broadway and ‘Hysteria’ – a film based on the story of Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville who was said to have invented the first electro mechanical vibrator in 1880

Vibrators were used in these earlier times for treatment of female hysteria – although, nowadays – it tends to be the cause of it!

Symptoms of Female Hysteria at that time were anxiety, insomnia, irritability and fluid retention and were thought at that time to be caused by a ‘wayward womb’ – a pelvic massage was often the prescription of choice performed by the Midwife.

In the late 1800′s, this treatment was then taken to the next level and mechanical vibrators were initially invented as medical devices to be used by Doctors to rid these female patients of their ‘neurosis’

According to Vanessa Thorpe, writing in the Observer, vibrators were available before the iron or vacuum cleaner!

‘Good Housekeeping’ in 1909 was enlightened enough to run a feature discussing the pros and cons of various types of home vibrators.

One of the manufacturers in this time even produced a home motor to which a vibrator could be attached!This model was a multi tasking appliance, for when not being used to power the vibrator, it could be used to run a sewing machine or drive a churn!

I wonder what our hysterical female audience think of this – dare to comment?!!!!………….