University College Galway hospital is
‘keeping cancer patients too long’
CANCER patients in one of the main specialist hospitals in the country may be kept in for too long, according to a new study just published.
The patients at University College Hospital in Galway have an average length of stay of 29 days, compared to 19 days in some other hospitals.
The research, published in the ‘Irish Medical Journal’, found no evidence of discharge planning in 60pc of the admissions they looked at.
The authors, from the Department of Public Health in the HSE West and Merlin Park Hospital Galway, said there was considerable potential to make more efficient use of the beds in the hospital for cancer patients.
With an increasing number of cancer cases, it is important that patients do not stay in hospital more often or longer than necessary.
The study said reducing the length of stay would ensure that the service was better able to meet demand.
Every cancer patient should be assessed within 24 hours but the researchers found 23pc had not been seen by a doctor in that time.
Early assessment allows for an agreed plan of investigation and for care to start sooner.
A number of treatments for cancer can also be met by bringing the patient by ambulance to the hospital but not requiring them to be admitted to a bed.
This can be further improved in the future with advances in drug therapies.
The findings showed that the Galway hospital may not always be in a position to meet the demands of ambulatory care.
The study also said that there was inappropriate use of the hospital’s accident and emergency department as a way of admission.
‘A recent study shows’ Suicide rates are 4 times Higher for men than women in Ireland
The CSO Central Statistics Office’s ‘Women and Men in Ireland 2011′ A report shows a wide divergences between the sexes in terms of mortality rates, employment, incom and education. # # # #
Men in Ireland are four times for more likely to die from suicide than women, and account from three times as many road fatalities as females.
According to the Central Statistics Office’s latest Women and Men in Ireland study, a total of 386 men took their own lives in 2010 compared to 100 women.
Overall, death rates for males were higher in all age groups but most pronounced in the 15-24 age category where the male rate was nearly four times that of the female rate.
The mortality rate due to road crashes for men (589) was nearly twice that of women (319) in 2010.
However, more than three-quarters of the 238 people killed in road incidents in 2009, the latest year covered by the report, were male.
In terms of health, women were more likely to be hospitalised in 2010, with 343 hospital discharges per 1,000 women compared with 305 discharges per 1,000 men.
Women were more likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals for depression while men are more likely to be treated for schizophrenia and alcoholic disorders.
The report showed women in Ireland have a higher fertility rate than women from any other European Union country.
The unemployment rate for men in 2011 was 17.4 per cent compared to 10.4 per cent.
Significantly, the figures showed the rate of females emigrating (37,800) last year was now almost the same as that of men (38,700).
At the beginning of the recession, men were emigrating in much greater numbers principally because of the rapid contraction of the construction sector, a male dominated sector of the economy.
In 2009, men had an average income of €34,317, while the average income for women was €25,103.
Men continued to outnumber women in all national and regional decision-making structures in Ireland in 2011.
Only 15.1 per cent of TDs in Dáil Éireann were women, compared to an representation in national parliaments for EU countries of 24.2 per cent, and a high of 45 per cent in Sweden.
Women accounted for just a third of State boards, less than a fifth of members of local authorities and just over a third of the membership of Vocational Education Committees.
While most workers in the health and education sectors are women most people employed in agriculture, construction and transport are men.
Gary Speed sent his wife a text suggesting he might commit suicide
Gary Speed sent his wife a text message suggesting he might commit suicide days before he was found hanging in the garage of their Cheshire home.
Gary Speed and his wife Louise: his death has caused widespread bewilderment and anguish and above right Gary playing for Wales.
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He was struggling with the pressures of his post as the Wales football manager, which put a strain on their relationship, Louise Speed, 41, told an inquest yesterday.
However, the apparent threat was quickly dismissed in a subsequent message. She said that on the night he died he was back “on top form” as the couple attended a dinner party near their home.
Their two teenage sons were asleep when they returned in a taxi shortly before 1am on Nov 27, but the couple began arguing. “We walked in the house and had words about something or nothing”, said Mrs Speed. “I can’t even remember what it was about.
“At that point I suggested I would go for a drive. He blocked the back door and said, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’
“I went upstairs and lay on the bed for five or 10 minutes. Then I decided I would go for the drive to clear my head and for space to think.
Mrs Speed could not get into the house so rang her husband’s mobile but he failed to answer. She spent the night in her car and when she tried again to get into the house she noticed that some keys to the garage were not in their usual place. “I went around the back of the garage,” she said. “I could see Gary on the stairs. He was hanging there. His toes were in contact with the step, but it was just his toes”.
Mrs Speed woke her sons to let her in the house and called the emergency services but her husband could not be revived. She described him as “a very private person” who did not relish his celebrity status. Although he enjoyed the Wales job, it had brought new pressures to his life, including the need to take on a flat in Cardiff. “He was very much a family man and didn’t like the separations,” said his widow.
She said it put a strain on their relationship but dismissed them as the “ups and downs” of most couples and they were “working it through”.
The difficulties were compounded by the fact that emotionally he was “quite a closed character”.
The inquest in Warrington heard that no suicide note was found.
One of Mr Speed’s closest friends, Alan Shearer, recalled him talking about his marriage during a holiday in France. “I was aware of a couple of issues as Gary spoke to me about them,” the former England captain said in a statement read to the court.
“Louise seemed relaxed and that indicated to me that the issues were being worked through”.
Nicholas Rheinberg, the Cheshire coroner, recorded a narrative verdict after deciding it was impossible to determine whether Mr Speed, who had drunk only a “moderate” amount of alcohol, had intended to end his life. He may have sat on the staircase for some time with the ligature around his neck. It was possible he fell asleep, causing it to tighten
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