Donie's Ireland news daily BLOG

Ireland’s Insurance claims up 5% in the last year 'Says Patricia Byron of Injuries Board'

 

The promotion of a claims culture could result in higher insurance premiums, it was warned today.The Injuries Board revealed almost 29,000 people made a claim last year, up almost 5pc in a year and up a quarter since 2007.

Patricia Byron, chief executive, revealed the increase was driven by motor claims which have jumped by more than a third over the last five years.

“The steady but consistent increase in claims volumes over the past five years is a real concern at a time when our roads have never been safer and we have fewer people at work,” she said.

“The trend coincides with a significant increase in promotion and advertising by claims handling intermediaries.

“Last year, the Injuries Board raised concerns that specialist claims-farming firms were promoting a claims culture that could result in higher insurance premiums for consumers and business and a decline in competitiveness.

“We need to learn lessons from the UK market, where claims handling services are promoted heavily and whiplash claims have increased by 60% since 2006.”

Three in a bed simply has no place on the curriculum for Irish vulnerable teenagers

 

I have never been part of a threesome. And I have no intention of ever trying it out. Call me prudish if you will, but I firmly believe sex should be between two responsible, loving, consenting adults. Not three or more. And I bet the majority of people agree with me on this.

I was, therefore, amazed – no, shocked – to see that SpunOut.ie, the website of an independent charity offering advice to young people aged between 16 and 25 on a range of topics, is, in effect, glamorising group sex and threesomes.

The website advises young people that threesomes are “fun”, can “spice things up” and inject “serious passion into their bedroom shenanigans”.

While also warning that threesomes can cause a relationship to end, Spunout.ie tells users as young as 16 that group sex can be a sexual adventure and is a pretty exciting thing. “People usually really enjoy them.”

The advice was posted on the website three years ago, but has only been highlighted now. It was written by a former editor – an American woman – who, according to a SpunOut spokesman, had “liberal views on sex”.

I am sure that the majority of parents in Ireland, like myself, were horrified at the content and are of the view that this is not the sort of advice that should be offered to teenage boys and girls.

Teenage years are a difficult time for young people who are grappling with their image, peer pressure, racing hormones and the awkward transition from childhood to adulthood. It is a time when they are getting in tune with their changing bodies, starting to have relationships and experimenting with sex.

It is also a time when they need clear direction on sexual health, and information on how to protect themselves.

Indeed, it is a time when they need emotional protection as well. They are going through a hard enough time as it is, but confusing them with information on threesomes and group sex is simply wrong.

SpunOut said in a statement that young people were having sex whether we liked it or not. Absolutely. It also says some of them are having sex with more than one person at the one time. But I contend that teenage threesomes are very rare.

Yes, sex education needs to begin at a young age. Irish schools are doing a poor job in this regard and SpunOut is filling that gap, receiving €124,000 in funding from the HSE.

SpunOut denies it is promoting threesomes, but says it is arming young people with the facts about them.

However, it is bizarre that an organisation that does such great work would post advice suggesting it is appropriate for young people to have sex with more than one person at a time.

This is a shame, because I am a supporter of what SpunOut does.

It has some excellent content on its website, with articles on the illegal sex trade in Europe, young people and politics, healthy eating and mental health.

There is a very thought-provoking piece written by a young person with a disability, and one heart-warming blog on being a young carer.

Any organisation in receipt of state funding should be trying to promote the sort of society that the majority of us would like to live in, one with loving relationships at the heart of it.

I would not like to see SpunOut’s state funding pulled. It has made a grave mistake, which hopefully will be redressed. While the original article has been edited in recent days, this is not enough. It should be taken down altogether.

It is welcome that Health Minister James Reilly has asked the HSE to review SpunOut’s activities, and that SpunOut has agreed to introduce new validation procedures for content.

Mr Reilly said yesterday, from his personal point of view as a doctor as well as a politician, that “this is not the appropriate sort of information that the State should be putting out there”. Too right.

The minister should also focus on providing more sex health education for young people, who are under huge pressure and who are accessing porn and other sites online that were not readily available to a previous generation. But threesomes definitely have no place in any curriculum.

Businesses in Galway slowest in Ireland to pay their bills

   

They take an average of 29 days past the due date to settle accounts

Businesses in Galway are the slowest in Ireland to pay their bills, taking on average of more than 29 days past the due date to settle their accounts, new research has shown.

And this may be affecting smaller suppliers who are dependent on prompt payment of bills for their survival.

The payment performance of Irish companies over the past six months has improved by almost three full days when compared with the same period last year, according to the latest insights from Experian, the global information services company.

Businesses throughout Ireland paid creditor invoices 24.37 days beyond invoice terms on average during the period October 2012-March 2013 compared with 27.01 days for the same period the previous year.

But businesses in Galway are the slowest in Ireland to pay their bills, averaging 29.28 days beyond terms during the period October 2012–March 2013.

That’s a full day longer than those in the next slowest county, Waterford (28.14), who are followed by Louth (27.97), Kildare (27.56) and Sligo (26.27).

The most prominent bill payers were from Longford, where businesses paid up 18.04 days on average after accounts fell due. They were followed on the fast-payments table by Wicklow (20.27), Donegal (21.48) and Clare (21.56).

By analysing the payment records of tens of thousands of businesses in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including those owned by overseas companies, Experian is able to identify both if and, crucially, when they are going to pay their debts.

Danielle Span-Dominy, Marketing Executive at Experian Ireland, said: “Most SMEs in Ireland rely on prompt payment of bills for survival and so it is imperative that businesses work together to improve overall payment performance.”

Medical studies ‘focus on male patients & in five main areas’

     

Men and women get sick in different ways, however little is known about these differences because medical research over the last 40 years has focused almost entirely on male patients, an international expert on gender and health has claimed.

According to Prof Giovannella Baggio of Padua University Hospital in Italy, researchers still know little about gender-specific differences in various illnesses, particularly in relation to symptoms, the influence of psychological factors and treatment. As a result, developing gender-specific medicine is a big challenge for the future.

Writing in the journal, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Prof Baggio and her team looked at five main areas – heart disease, cancer, diseases of the liver, osteoporosis and pharmacology.

In relation to heart health, Prof Baggio noted that women often display different symptoms, for example, when suffering a heart attack. While men often suffer pain in their chest and left arm, women are more likely to suffer lower abdominal pain and nausea.

However, despite the fact that heart attacks tend to be more severe in women, those who complain of these non-specific symptoms ‘often do not receive the necessary examination procedures, such as an ECG’.

In relation to cancer, Prof Baggio refers specifically to cancer of the colon, also known as bowel cancer. This is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men and women, however women tend to develop the disease later than men. Furthermore, colon cancer tumours usually have a different location in women, although they do tend to respond more positively to certain chemical treatments.

In terms of diseases of the liver, Prof Baggio notes that one disease, for example, primary biliary cirrhosis, mainly affects women as a result of their genes and different hormone levels.

Osteoporosis meanwhile is often described as a ‘woman’s disease’ because more women develop it. Prof Baggio pointed out that as a result, many men with the condition may be overlooked and the death rate among men who suffer osteoporosis-related fractures is higher than among women.

In relation to pharmacology, Prof Baggio said that drugs, such as aspirin, can work differently in men and women as a result of different body types, different absorption rates and different hormonal levels.

She insisted that if drugs are to be administered safely and effectively, ‘the dosage and duration of treatment must take the patient’s gender into account’.

Prof Baggio added that more studies on gender differences are needed ‘in order to eliminate fundamental inequalities between men and women in the treatment of disease’.

Some Galway chemists charge twice as much for the same drug like Valium & Liposat tablets

  

PRICE DIFFERENCE OF UP TO 97% FOUND BETWEEN DIFFERENT CITY PHAMACIES

Some pharmacies in Galway are charging almost twice as much for the same drugs as their competitors, a shocking survey has revealed.

The National Consumer Agency (NCA) has found that in Galway the average percentage difference in price across the 39 commonly prescribed medicine products was found to be 30%.

The highest percentage difference in Galway was for the cholesterol lowering drug, Lipostat Tabs 20 Mg (28), priced between €19.42 to €38.30, a price difference of 97%.

In Galway the price for Valium Tabs 5Mg (100), were between €4.50 to €8.27, a price difference of 84%.

Tenormin-50 Tabs (28), used in the treatment of high blood pressure and angina, among other conditions, were priced between €6.03 to €9.39 in Galway, a price difference of 56%.

Nationally, the percentage differences in prices of individual prescription medicines ranged from 37% to 199%. The average percentage difference across all products nationally was 56%.

The results were obtained from a nationwide survey by NCA of 45 pharmacies, which found large variations both nationally and in local areas for the prices charged to private customers for 39 common prescription medicines. The products included in the survey were selected from a list of commonly prescribed medicines provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE). The survey also found differences in relation to pharmacies’ policies on dispensing fees.

The consumer rights group has urged people in Galway to ‘shop around’ to avoid paying way above the odds for medicines.

2-Headed Shark Fetus Netted by Fisherman

        

When a fisherman caught a bull shark recently off the Florida Keys, he came across an unlikely surprise: One of the shark’s live fetuses had two heads.

The fisherman kept the odd specimen, and shared it with scientists, who described it in a study published online today (March 25) in the Journal of Fish Biology. It’s one of the very few examples of a two-headed shark ever recorded — there about six instances in published reports — and the first time this has been seen in a bull shark, said Michael Wagner, a study co-author and researcher at Michigan State University.

Technically called “axial bifurcation,” the deformity is a result of the embryo beginning to split into two separate organisms, or twins, but doing so incompletely, Wagner told OurAmazing Planet. It’s a very rare mutation that occurs across different animals, including humans.

“Halfway through the process of forming twins, the embryo stops dividing,” he said.

The two-headed fetus likely wouldn’t have lived for very long in the wild, he said. “When you’re a predator that needs to move fast to catch other fast-moving fish … that’d be nearly impossible with this mutation,” he said.

Wagner said the description of the deformed shark may someday help better understand how these deformities arise in sharks and other animals.

Two-headed snakes and turtles can be bought from certain specialty breeders, and there is a small market for such creatures, Wagner said.

Several of the few examples of two-headed sharks available today come from museum specimens from the late 1800s, when deformed animals and other macabre curiosities fetched high prices, he said.

Another reason the two-headed shark likely wouldn’t have survived: its small body. “It had very developed heads, but a very stunted body,” Wagner said. There’s only so much energy that can go into the body’s development, and it went into the shark’s double noggins, he added.