Two Galway hospitals fined a total of €1.2 million over waiting lists
Two Galway hospitals have been fined a total of €1.2 million by the Department of Health for failing to meet Government targets on reduced waiting times.
University College Hospital Galway and the city’s Merlin Park Hospital are the first to face fines under a policy put in place by the department’s special delivery unit in February.
The new policy penalises hospitals where patients have had to wait longer than the official maximum target of 12 months for procedures.
The department, however, has suspended the penalty on the Galway hospitals on condition that all waiting time targets are met by September 30th, and a programme of support measures is put in place.
The department also said the two hospitals would be excluded from any performance-related incentive payments which may be introduced by the Government later in the year.
The number of people waiting longer than 12 months for hospital procedures increased dramatically in the early part of the year but is now falling again, official figures released yesterday show.
The Department of Health said that at the end of last week there were 556 patients – adults and children – waiting longer than 12 months for either day-case or in-patient procedures in hospitals.
A spokesman for Minster for Health James Reilly said the special delivery unit would now carry out an assessment in these hospitals. He said it would look at whether there were any particular reasons for the targets being missed, such as urgent cases having to be given priority over those waiting in chronological order.
Under the system of penalties, hospitals with patients who were waiting longer than 12 months for procedures would face possible fines of €25,000 per month.
Alternatively, they would have to pay the full cost of having the patient treated in another centre, along with a financial penalty that would be 100 per cent of the costs involved.
The department’s figures showed there was a surge in the number of patients who had to wait longer than 12 months for procedures in the early months of the year, but this had begun to tail off in recent weeks.
At the end of December the number of patients waiting longer than 12 months stood at 372 – all of whom were awaiting treatment in Galway University Hospital or Merlin Park Hospital. At the end of January this number had grown to 907.
By the end of February the number waiting longer than 12 months had surged to 1,219.
However the department said that at the end of last week the numbers had fallen to 556 – down substantially on the figures recorded for the end of February but still significantly ahead of the position at the end of December.
It attributed the fall in the numbers waiting longer than 12 months in recent weeks on the introduction of a new regime of fines.
The chief operating officer of the department’s special delivery unit, Tony O’Brien, said: “The evidence appears to support the notion that since the penalty regime was implemented hospitals have refocused their attention on chronological management of waiting list patients, and that is the reason why we see the waiting list coming down.”
In a letter to the Galway hospitals, the special delivery unit said the suspension of the fines was in the context of them addressing chronological management and exhausting all avenues of providing treatment and entering into open dialogue to agree a programme of financial support.
3% Increase in numbers of HSE staff earning over €100,000 despite cut-backs
At the end of last year, 2,358 staff were earning six-figure salaries, at a cost of almost €378 million
THE NUMBER of HSE staff earning over €100,000 a year is increasing despite the wider cutbacks in the health service budget.
At the end of last year, 2,358 staff were earning six-figure salaries, at a combined cost of almost €378 million, according to figures provided by the HSE. This represents an increase of 69 over the previous figure of 2,289 given to the Dáil by Minister for Health James Reilly last year.
The vast majority are medical consultants working in HSE hospitals. However, the figures do not include consultants working in voluntary hospitals, many of whom would be earning well over €100,000 a year.
The figures show 12 HSE managers or administrators are earning over €100,000, as are 37 nursing staff.
A total of 1,670 medical and dental staff are earning €100,000, the figures supplied by the HSE to Labour TD Ged Nash show.
Surprisingly, HSE West is the area with the greatest number of medical and dental staff earning over €100,000, with 358. The southern area has 308 top-earning medical and dental staff while the eastern region has only 298.
Mr Nash was critical yesterday of the rising cost of administrative salaries in the organisation. “One of the first tasks that the Minister for Health must confront when the HSE is formally abolished is to learn the lessons of the organisational failure created when the executive was established in the first instance.”
He said there was a strong argument for abolishing the former health boards on the basis that administrative costs alone were skyrocketing.
“In fact, it seems to me that far from arresting the costs related to highly paid administrative and management jobs in the old health boards system, the HSE has presided over a flourishing of administration and management jobs that are extremely well rewarded.”
Last year, Dr Reilly said the HSE had estimated that the capping of top salaries at €100,000 would generate savings of about €153 million.
Separately, Dr Reilly suggested that a cap on hospital consultants’ salaries of €150,000 could produce savings of about €100 million.
One million years ago, Human Ancestors used fire ‘scientists say after cave find’
Micrograph of burned bone on a paleosurface at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa above left & right.
Ash and charred bone, the earliest known evidence of controlled use of fire, reveal that human ancestors may have used fire a million years ago, a discovery that researchers say will shed light on this major turning point in human evolution.
Scientists analyzed material from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, a massive cavern located near the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Previous excavations there had uncovered an extensive record of human occupation.
Microscopic analysis revealed clear evidence of burning, such as plant ash and charred bone fragments. These materials were apparently burned in the cave, as opposed to being carried in there by wind or water, and were found alongside stone tools in a layer dating back about 1 million years. Surface fracturing of ironstone, the kind expected from fires, was also seen.
‘The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years.’
- Michael Chazan, paleolithic archaeologist
Although modern humans are the only human species alive today, originating about 200,000 years ago, other human species once roamed the Earth, such as Homo erectus, which arose about 1.9 million years ago. [10 Things That Make Humans Special]
“The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that human ancestors as early asHomo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life,” said researcher Michael Chazan, a paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Toronto and director of the university’s archaeology center.
The research team’s analysis suggests that materials in the cave were not heated above about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). This is consistent with preliminary findings that grasses, brushes and leaves were burned for these fires — such fuel would not have been capable of hotter flames.
Fire would have helped early humans stay warm and keep nighttime predators at bay, and enabled cooking, which would have made food more digestible. In addition, “socializing around a campfire might actually be an essential aspect of what makes us human,” Chazan said. “The control of fire would have been a major turning point in human evolution.”
Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham has speculated that controlled fires and cooked meat even influenced human brain evolution. He suggests that humans were cooking their prey as far back as the first appearance of Homo erectus 1.9 million years ago, just when humans were experiencing major brain expansion, and proposes that cooking allowed our ancestors to evolve larger, more calorie-hungry brains and bodies, and smaller guts suited for more easily digested cooked food.
“It’s possible we may find evidence of fire use as early as Wrangham has suggested,” Chazan told LiveScience.
Future research will analyze both earlier and later materials from this site to see how fire use might have developed over time.
“We’re opening the question of how fire fit into the life of early humans and how that might have changed over time,” Chazan said.
The scientists detailed their findings online April 2 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Big boost in house’s sale in Ireland as housing market is finally beginning to move again
The Daft.ie Asking Price Index is based on asking prices for properties posted for sale on Daft.ie. An index based on asking price, as opposed to closing price, is a measure of sellers’ expectations. Figures are calculated from econometric regressions, which calculate changes in price that are independent of changes in observable measures of quality, such as location, or bedroom number.
New figures reveal a rise in the prices being asked for properties in several regions, including Dublin and Galway.
Properties are selling more quickly, while the number of houses waiting to be sold has fallen to its lowest level in four years.
These trends are tentative indicators that the housing market is nearing the bottom of its long downward spiral.
As the country enters the fifth year of property price falls, a new Daft.ie report out today offers reason for a little optimism.
It recorded the smallest quarterly decline in prices for that period. The report also shows that selling conditions are improving in some areas, with 40pc of properties in the capital now being sold within three months.
However, the total number of properties for sale, at 54,000, is the lowest it has been for four years. While that is viewed as a positive as it means houses are not languishing on the market, the lower number for sale is also the sign of a severely “depressed” market.
And because the survey focuses on asking prices only, it is likely that many houses are being sold for far less than the figures quoted.
Daft.ie’s Ronan Lyons said the latest figures suggested more stable asking prices and faster sales. ”The question is whether it’s sustainable,” the Oxford university-based economist said.
“My own sense would be that we would want to see at least two quarters of stable or increasing asking prices before we could make any call about what’s happening or that a bottoming out has occurred.”
The report suggests there are positive signals, with 40pc of houses in Dublin and 36pc of houses in Leinster now finding a buyer within four months.
Speed: There has also been a boost in the speed of property sales in Connacht and Ulster, although Munster stayed constant at 29pc selling within four months.
Despite the signs of increased movement, Daft warns there won’t be any real breakthrough until the banks start lending again. And even then, it will take a long time for confidence and activity to grow to a level where the housing market can be considered healthy.
The survey is also limited by its use of asking prices and not actual sale prices.
But several factors are now at play which at least offer a glimmer of hope that the housing market freefall will end later this year.
Over the entire mortgage market last year, just €2.5bn was loaned out. Experts now expect that to double to at least €5bn this year.
First-time buyers are also being encouraged to buy now by the Government, with a 25pc rate of mortgage interest relief offered — but only until the end of 2012.
And six banks are moving to offer new types of mortgages offering help to those who bought during the boom but were caught in the negative equity trap.
These homeowners, who owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, will be able to carry some of their debt with them. This will free them up to move to another house, and could provide some much-needed activity in the sector.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny focused on efforts to reboot the housing market as he gave his speech to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis at the weekend.
“We will work with the Financial Regulator to encourage banks to offer negative equity mortgages; we will finalise and enact a Personal Insolvency Bill designed to re-balance the rights of the borrower and lender in a fairer way,” he said.
Mr Lyons said the fact that prices had gone up a little may reflect that “there are buyers out there and they are finally making a move”.
“There are two ways of looking at this. The optimistic way is that a lot of parts of the country have seen falls from the peak of close to 60pc. And if you look at house prices relative to income or rent, a 60pc drop looks in line with what you might regard as long-term fundamental house prices.
“The more cautious view is that there might be a jump-up in asking prices following a big fall and it’s really just the market taking a breather.”
The real prices of all houses sold over the past two years will only be revealed in the summer as a new house price database goes online with Government backing. It is the first time that accurate information on the selling prices of houses will be available to the public.
Daft.ie said that the average asking price for the first quarter of 2012 was €177,000 — down 52pc on the peak of €366,000 in mid 2007.
Nationally prices are still falling, but from January to the end of March fell just 1.4pc — the smallest quarterly fall since the housing collapse began.
This figure is in stark contrast to the 8pc drop during the final three months of 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment