Safety targets to feature in Ireland’s 2013 National Service Plan
The HSE’s 2014 HSE National Service Plan will set out targets in respect of each programme area “to ensure that health, safety, quality of care performance can be evaluated throughout the year, in order to identify any emerging areas of concern,
The Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly has said should any such concerns arise, this will make it possible to implement necessary remedial measures without delay.
The 2013 Service Plan required the HSE to continue to focus its delivery of services on the dual challenge of protecting patient outcomes, while at the same time.reducing costs. 2014 will be no different in this regard and any measures impacting on the health system as a result of Budget 2014 will also be assessed against these criteria — with the outcomes of this consideration set out in the NSP for 2014, Dr Reilly said. The Plan will be submitted to Dr Reilly shortly for approval.
In setting out the operating framework for the delivery of HSE services throughout 2014, the Plan will look to deliver the maximum level of safe services possible, with prioritisation, where necessary, of certain services to meet the most urgent needs.
The healthcare system has, over recent years, had to deal with a number of major challenges, including reduced overall levels of funding and employment numbers, demographic pressures and increased numbers of people with chronic illnesses, said Dr Reilly.
Despite this, major improvements in mortality and morbidity rates have been achieved in certain core areas, including diseases of the circulatory system, where the death rate per 100,000 has fallen by almost 36 per cent since 2002. Overall cancer rates have reduced by 8 per cent in the same period.
“This has been achieved during a period when the average length of stay in acute hospitals has also reduced and the number of patients receiving the treatment they require without having to stay in hospital (i.e. day-case patients) has increased as a percentage of total discharges by over 50 per cent,” Dr Reilly told the Dáil.
Forty of the Ireland’s worst ghost estates to be demolished
Developments with no hope of being finished to be bulldozed next year after list of 40 drawn up
Council officials have been in touch with the property developers involved and their banks to draw up plans for dealing with the worst cases.
Some of them are at a very rudimentary stage with no completed houses in the developments.
Commercial viability
He said the Department of the Environment had been working with local authorities to identify estates with no hope of commercial viability.
He said the Department of the Environment had been working with local authorities to identify estates with no hope of commercial viability.
Council officials have been in touch with the property developers involved and their banks to draw up plans for dealing with the worst cases.
The legal owners of the properties are now considering whether to comply with requests by the local authorities to clear the sites or propose alternative plans to deal with them.
Most of the ghost estates targeted for demolition are not close to the main urban centres and are owned by small local developers.
The spokesman said some of them have partially built houses on them but many have just foundations and groundworks and could be returned to green field status relatively easily.
The latest inventory of unfinished estates provided by local authorities to the department shows that there are less than 1,300 of them in the country. This compares with 1,770 a year ago.
A significant number of unfinished estates have been brought up to standard over the past year with local authorities providing proper road access as well as footpaths, roads, lighting and other services.
A fund of €10 million was allocated in the budget to provide these facilities in estates where most of the houses have been occupied.
Councils can apply to draw down money from this fund and Ms O’Sullivan is hoping that the provision of basic services will persuade developers to finish off the houses in the improved estates.
‘Private finance’
“If this works by attracting the private finance to finish out a number of estates we can make the case to do it again.
“If this works by attracting the private finance to finish out a number of estates we can make the case to do it again.
“As of now we have the funding for 2014 but €10 million is just enough for the first phase of a programme to deal with problem estates,” said the department spokesman.
Mothers granted leave to challenge law on resource hours for
DOWN SYNDROME CHILDREN
Two mothers have been granted leave to challenge the current rules on resource hours for children with Down Syndrome in the High Court next month.
The High Court has granted leave for two mothers of children with Down Syndrome to challenge the law on the provision of resource teaching hours to children with the disability.
One of the women. whose five-year-old son has Down Syndrome and is currently schooled in the mainstream system, wants her son to be allocated resource teaching hours, but Down Syndrome is not currently recognised as a disability by the Department of Education.
A child with the disability must be diagnosed with second disability from the Department of Education’s ‘Low Incidence Disability’ list in order to qualify for resource teaching hours.
“My son has Down Syndrome and he is not entitled to support in the mainstream schools,” the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told TheJournal.ie today.
“We’re asking the State to recognise our children and give them adequate support.”
The State has been given until 5 December to respond to the case. The woman said this evening that she is “naturally nervous” but wants the nation to realise that Down Syndrome is a disability.
She said that having met with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn she feels this is now the only option left for her.
Doctors should always put patient care before cost
A top PROFESSOR SAYS
Doctors should always try to do the best they can for their patients without the consideration of cost, a leading ophthalmologist has said.
The Full Professor and Chair at the Department of Ophthalmology, University Vita-Salute, Scientific Institute, San Raffaele, Milan, Italy — described by the Irish College of Ophthalmologists (ICO) as one of the world’s top ophthalmic experts — commented: “Our role should not be to ask for less for our patients. As doctors, we work for the best for our patients, then someone else with responsibility for allocation of resources should worry about feasibility, maybe a politician.”
Prof Francesco Bandello, in Dublin last month for the International Retina and AMD Congress 2013, was commenting on the ongoing debate in the specialty — whether to prescribe Avastin (bevacizumab), a cheaper off-label drug originally licensed for cancer, or the relatively more expensive licensed Lucentis (ranibizumab), for the treatment of wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
Irish Medical Times reports as the results of a ground-breaking investigation into the prevalence of the chronic eye condition in Ireland (some 7 per cent of over 50-year-olds have AMD) were presented by Principal Investigator of the Macular Pigment Research Group, Waterford IT, Prof John Nolan, at the International Retina Conference hosted in Dublin last week by Irish patient-led research charity Fighting Blindness.
However, Prof Bandello said: “The problem is financial. If we have enough money I think there is no question about it, we must use Lucentis, because it is developed specifically for ophthalmology with less side-effects. But if we have insufficient money, then it should be about watching the costs.”
Although he believes Avastin works equally well, Prof Bandello queried: “Were it your mother or brother or sister, you would give them Lucentis but what is the limit?”
Resources will become increasingly important in the future as people live longer and because all over the world nobody has money to treat everyone in the best possible way so we have become communistic,
Test’s for aggressive (tiger) type prostate cancer could help men
AVOID TOUGH DECISIONS ON SURGERY
Prostate cancer patients could be screened to detect aggressive tumours (like above left) after scientists identified a protein linked to severe forms of the disease.
Currently there is no reliable way to distinguish between life-threatening prostate cancers, known as “tigers”, and less harmful “pussycats” which cause few or no symptoms.
Patients with high levels of the protein NAALADL2 are more likely to need surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy while those with low concentrations could be spared unnecessary treatment, researchers said.
Currently there is no reliable way to distinguish between life-threatening prostate cancers, known as “tigers”, and less harmful “pussycats” which cause few or no symptoms.
The Cancer Research UK scientists, from the University of Cambridge, studied biopsies of prostate tumours and found that NAALADL2 caused prostate cancer cells to behave more aggressively and invade healthy tissue.
Results published in the Oncogene journal showed that those with high levels of the protein were twice as likely to relapse after treatment than those with low levels.
The findings suggest that screening for high levels of the protein could help doctors pinpoint patients with aggressive tumours, researchers said.
Some 41,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the UK and about 10,700 die from the disease annually.
Lead author Dr Hayley Whitaker said: “This is early research, but if clinical trials confirm our results then it could help clinicians to tell which patients have a more aggressive tumour and need proportionally aggressive treatment, while sparing patients with low grade tumours unnecessary radiotherapy or surgery.
“This is an important step along the path to developing a much-sought after test that could distinguish between different types of prostate cancer.”
Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK’s prostate cancer expert, added: “I hope that this research brings forward the day when I can say to patients: ‘We know that your cancer doesn’t need treatment’ – a crucial development that could spare thousands of patients from enduring arduous treatment with unpleasant side effects.
Egyptians mummified snack portions for journey of death
A STUDY REVEALS
Embalmed portions of ribs and roasts placed in coffin as well as cats and dogs, researchers say
Carefully embalmed and wrapped beef ribs all set for the hungry mummy on the way to the next world, from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC).
Similar animal fat-derived compounds were found on a wrapped goat leg, but the balm was not used on mummified duck meat. But mummified beef ribs were a different matter, with a treatment used made of fat or oil along with beeswax and “Pistacia resin”, a luxury item in ancient Egypt, the authors note.
It is not clear why one recipe was used over another when preparing these handy meals, but there was no risk of going hungry when crossing over to the next world.
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