“Patients of Ireland you are warned” Doctors at the ready to go on strike
DOCTORS AND THE HSE MET TODAY TO TALK ABOUT CONTINGENCY PLANS IF DOCTORS DO STRIKE FROM NEXT MONTH – BUT THE DOCTORS AREN’T HAPPY.
Irish Doctors have given notice to the HSE that it needs to prepare for junior doctors withdrawing their services from hospitals as part of a dispute about what they say are illegal working hours.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the HSE met today to discuss the possible industrial action and talk about contingency plans if doctors do – as expected – go on strike next month, but doctors say the HSE had no concrete proposals to avert the action.
The IMO has begun to fight back against the long and chaotic working hours of non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDS) and members were recently balloted on whether to take industrial action over the issue. The result is expected to be known on 2 September.
“We have been prepared to make every effort to resolve this issue but we cannot agree to further stalling tactics,” said Eric Young of the IMO. “After 10 years it is surely now time to address the problem once and for all. This is a problem for patients and doctors alike”.
No agreement was reached on contingency plans at today’s meeting, but the IMO said it will cooperate fully with providing emergency cover during any industrial action that takes place, and that it will give sufficient notice to the HSE to allow for contingency arrangements to be put in place.
The IMO’s 24 No More campaign is looking for an immediate end to shifts of more than 24 hours as well as a promise from the HSE to adhere to the European Working Time Directive – which governs how many hours doctors can safely work – by the end of nextyear.
“IT is clear that this is not a priority issue for the HSE,” said Young. “Doctors are in effect being treated worse than any other workers in the health services with these unacceptable dangerous working hours.”
Doctors deserve more respect and patients deserve a better service.
Both sides will meet again on Tuesday in a bid to deal with the looming industrial action.
Irish CAO Students snap up 44,000 college places already
As the CAO Round One deadline passed this evening, 37,448 students who received offers last Monday accepted a course place.
That represents three in four of the 49,837 students who got a Round One offer and comes on top of earlier acceptances by other CAO applicants, including mature students and those who entering via further education, such as a PostLeaving Certificate (PLC) course.
Overall, college acceptance levels are slightly short of last year’s all-time high after Round One, but they remain at record levels.
While Round One acceptances are down from 37,645 last year, the underlying strength in demand is evident when compared with the 36,392 acceptances at the same stage in 2010.
The collapse in school-leaver job opportunities as a result of the economic downturn, combined with a growing requirement for a third-level qualification for so-called “smart economy” jobs has fuelled the race for a college place.
This year has seen a particular surge in interest among students for study in science, technology, engineering and business.
CAO applications showed a shift away from more traditional careers areas such as teaching and healthcare, as public service cuts squeeze jobs and pay
Instead, there was a strong student focus on study linked to growth areas in the economy, which they clearly hope will translate into ready employment when they graduate in a few years time.
A rush to accept college places was evident once the offers were made last week, with 22,131 acceptances on the first day.
The CAO will make a second round of college offers on Thursday, and from then until the middle of October , colleges will continue to fill any remaining vacancies.
As well as the original applicants, the CAO is also processing late applicationsfrom students seeking to fill places for which the colleges did to get sufficient suitably qualified applicants initially.
With the number of school-leavers set to grow dramatically in coming years, the education system is braced for even higher demand for college education in the foreseeable future.
A feature of the CAO process this year is the growth in offers in, and acceptances for Level 8, honours degree courses, against a decline in Level 7/6 ordinary degree/higher certificate courses.
One of the focuses of the overhaul of the higher education system currently underway is to improve the offering of Level 7/6 courses, graduates of which are in demand from industry.
Over 44,000 Irish school girls get vaccine against cervical cancer
HPV vaccine used in battle against disease which kills average of 80 women each year
Coloured scanning electron micrograph image of a cervical cancer cell (above right). About 250 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in Ireland each year, with 80 patients dying of it.
More than 44,000 schoolgirls have been protected against developing cervical cancer as adults, health chiefs have said.
The HSE revealed the number of girls administered the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine against the disease over the last two years has exceeded targets set when rolled out.
About 250 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer inIreland each year, with 80 patients dying of it.
Dr Kevin Kelleher said vaccination rates have been better than or as good as in many other countries worldwide.
“Staff involved in the programme are to be commended for this achievement,” said Dr Kelleher, the assistant national director of health protection at the HSE.
The HPV vaccine is administered in three doses over six months.
The vaccination programme was introduced to a small number of schools in May 2010 and was rolled out nationally the following September, targeting almost 60,000 schoolgirls in their first and second years.
The free programme will begin again in the coming months for all girls starting secondary school.
Routine programme: Dr Kelleher said the routine programme for first-year girls during 2011/2012 was well received, with an uptake rate of 86 per cent for the three vaccine doses, up from 82 per cent for 2010/2011 and well above the target of 80 per cent uptake rate set by the HSE.
“In addition, a catch-up programme was introduced in 2011/2012 for all sixth- year girls and the rate for completed vaccination courses for sixth-year students was also very strong with a 72 per cent uptake, 12 per cent above the target of 60 per cent,” he added.
Cervical cancer is a disease of the cervix at the entrance to the womb and is the second most common cancer in Ireland among women aged 15 to 44.
Most of the vaccinations against it are administered in schools by HSE immunisation teams, with some girls being invited to HSE clinics for their jabs.
Prior to the vaccination, the HSE also sends informationpacks and consent forms via the school for completion by parents, guardians or the girls themselves.
The Government made a dramatic U-turn at the start of 2010 to roll out the life-saving vaccine after initially claiming it could not afford to do so given the tough economic climate.
However, drug companies agreed to lower their prices for the vaccine, which saw the cost of the programme – including the vaccine and administration costs – slashed from €16 million euro to €3 million.
New €250,000 Enterprise Ireland fund launched for female entrepreneurs
Pictured left: Sarah Doyle, CEO, Kinesense, Julie Sinnamon, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland, Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Noreen Hynes, Managing Director, Polymer Recovery Limited and Lulu O’Sullivan, CEO, GiftsDirect.com & (Right pic) Julie Sinnamon, executive director, Global Business Development, Enterprise Ireland
A new €250,000 batch of start-up funding has been launched for female entrepreneurs following big demand for previous similar funds.
The money will be provided by Enterprise Ireland in the form of a Competitive Feasibility Fund.
It is designed to allow entrepreneurs investigate the viability of new growth-orientated businesses which are export-orientated.
It is targeted at women in manufacturing start-ups and internationally traded services businesses including internet, games, apps, cloud computing, enterprise software, lifesciences, food, consumer products, medical devices and e-health.
A second batch will also be launched in September.
Two similar female entrepreneurship funds were launched last year and attracted more than 200 applications. Of these, 30 received funding.
No Irish bank names in world’s ‘top 50 safest banks’
GERMAN BANK KFW TOPS THE TABLE
IRISH BANKS DON’T MAKE THE GRADE IN THE GLOBAL FINANCE TOP 50 SAFEST BANKS 2013
Irish banks don’t make the grade in the latest Global Finance survey of the “World’s 50 Safest Banks”, although Dutch bank Rabobank, which has an operation in Ireland, came in 10th position.
German bank KFW tops the list, followed by another Dutch bank, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten. According to the authors of the report, the “safest banks in Europe have explicit guarantees from AAA-rated governments”.
Canadian banks are once again the best performing in North America, with six banks in the top 50, although US institutions are catching up, with six banks in the top 50.
In Asia, banks from Singapore are again the strongest in Asia, as are those from Chile in Latin America.
The size threshold for banks is higher this year, with some strong local and global banks not qualifying for the list owing to their asset size, not their ratings.
Global Finance publisher Joseph D Giarraputo saidthat thesurvey shows that the number of emerging markets banks in the top 50 is slowly growing, and the number of triple-A banks has not changed and it is pretty limited, “as many countries have lost their top sovereign rating and no new ones have reached that level yet”.
Russia’s Arctic Ocean developments to threaten the protection of wildlife
Russia is planning huge oil and gas developments in the Arctic Ocean off its northern coast – drilling that could threaten pristine wildlife habitats.
Large-scale production could begin in the next two decades, if the price of oil rises high enough.
Preliminary exploration has already begun, including in the Laptev Sea.
But scientists say the region is home to important, thriving populations of walrus and polar bears, which could be put at risk.
The early retreat of ice makes life harder for the polar bear and walrus
Biologists on the 2013 Laptev Expedition this summer have been trying to establish if the walruses and polar bears there are a unique group, in need of special protection. BBC journalists went with them to investigate the issue.
We flew to Khatanga, one of the most northerly towns in Siberia, and there we boarded a small boat, the Taimyr.
From Khatanga it was a two-day, 500km (310-mile) journey almost duenorth.
POLAR BEARS
Then we saw a big “haul-out” of walrus at Cape Tsvetkov – perhaps 400-600 there, resting on the beach. Towering above them on the last large lump of ice was a large polar bear.
But our destination was Maria Pronchishcheva Bay, half-way up the Taimyr Peninsula. It is the most northerly bit of land in the world still attached to a continent.
“The oil companies are coming here with exploration projects already, and there are ongoing seismic explorations,” said Igor Chestin, chief executive of the environmental group WWF Russia.
“So before the real oil and gas projects develop in the area we need to know that there is sufficient knowledge of the conservation needs here, which would allow us to put in the necessary protection if this development ever happens.”
From satellite photographs taken a week earlier, the scientists on the expedition knew there had also been a large walrus “haul-out” there previously. By the time we sailed into the bay the number had dropped to around 60. But it was still enough for the crucial scientific work of the expedition – collecting DNA from the Laptev walrus.
Collecting samples: Walrus expert Anatoly Kochnev of ChukotTINRO, a marine biology group, was despatched to the pebbly spit where the animals were resting.
We watched as he fired crossbow darts into the sides of the walrus, which he then retrieved with a thin piece of line attached to each dart. At the head of each dart was a biopsy punch, which pulled out a piece of walrus skin and fat as it was retrieved.
The samples will be sent to labs in Moscow and Denmark for DNA analysis. The plan is to end a long scientific dispute over whether the Laptev walrus is a unique sub-species in need of special protection, genetically different from the Pacific walrus and the Atlantic walrus.
DARTS ARE USED TO COLLECT VITAL SAMPLES FROM THE WALRUS
Just one hour after Anatoly Kochnev’s third trip out to the spit, a huge male polar bear appeared in the exact spot where he had been kneeling to fire the crossbow. The bear tried to kill one of the walrus, but was unsuccessful – this time.
Polar bear expert Geoff York of WWF’s Global Arctic Programme is collecting samples – faeces and hair – which will also be sent for DNA analysis. Again there is a concern that the polar bears of the Laptev Sea may be unique and in need of special protection.
“If that is true then in most countries you would need to identify the habitat being used by bears,” Geoff York said.
“Are they making dens onshore? How are they using the land in summer? Then you would protect those habitats at least in the relevant seasons. If you do indeed have two unique sub-populations of marine mammals here you might consider that this should be a Marine Protected Area, and you might exclude any industrial development.”
Ice retreating: The concern about the large marine mammals of the Laptev Sea has increased in the last decade for two reasons.
Firstly, climate change has led to a dramatic shrinking of the Arctic ice cap in recent summers. This has meant that in order to stay close to their feeding grounds the walruses have had to come ashore in much larger numbers, instead of staying on the ice where they feel more comfortable.
Polar bears are also being forced ashore, where they find it much harder to feed. Their preferred meal, the ringed seal, is not available onshore and they often are reduced to going after the much more dangerous walrus.
Secondly, there are plans to develop the Laptev Sea for oil and gas production. The water here is shallow, which makes it easier to drill, and there are believed to be large deposits of hydrocarbons. This exploration work may frighten the nervous bear and walruses, and could disrupt their food supply.
Conservationists think the arrival of much greater numbers of humans could also increase hunting, further disrupting the delicate balance of nature here. They say that nobody has yet worked out how to control an oil spill in seas that are close to freezing.
The Laptev Sea is now a target for large-scale energy exploration
The Russian government says the country’s future wealth depends on exploiting the deposits here and in other parts of the Arctic. The deposits will not be easy to extract, but they are almost certainly there.
“Most of the estimates give more than 20% of global undiscovered oil deposits to Russian Arctic seas,” said Alexev Piskarev, author of Energy Potential of the Russian Arctic Seas.
Shipping route: The melting sea ice has also opened up new shipping routes. Russia is now advertising the Northern Sea Route, which cuts the journey time from China to Europe by up to two weeks.
“You save time and you save fuel. It is much more economical,” said Alexander Olshevsky, head of the Northern Sea Route Administration. “Though you will need to pay for a nuclear-powered icebreaker, and of course you will need a boat that can deal with these conditions.”
But again, opening up the Northern Sea Route could disrupt the fragile ecosystem. More than 400 ships will make the journey this year – yet in 2010 it was only four.
On our brief, two-week trip we have seen extraordinary fire-red Arctic skies, gleaming snowy owls and grumpy musk ox, and an almost untouched landscape of thin yellow tundra covering the permafrost. The temperature has barely risen above 10C and has often been closer to freezing.
It is one of the last wildernesses of the world, a place few people even know exists, but modern industry is already starting to encroach on it.
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