HSE says healthcare cuts are very ‘regrettable’ Eamon Gilmore
Minister for Health James Reilly and Eamon Gilmore regrettable cuts.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has said he does not yet know the reasons behind the cuts imposed in health services announced by the HSE yesterday, while Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has called the move “regrettable”.
Cuts affecting the elderly and the disabled feature strongly in a €130 million cost-reduction package announced by the executive yesterday. The cuts to home help services in particular have provoked a furious reaction from groups working with older people and the disabled and disagreement between the Government parties.
Speaking in Dublin this morning, Mr Quinn said Minister for Health James Reilly would brief the Cabinet on Tuesday “as to the raison d’être that’s behind it”.
He added: “We will await to hear what he has to say.”
Cuts had to be made “because we have lost our economic sovereignty, we are no longer in control of our cheque book”, he said.
“We don’t want to do theses things. We inherited a situation where we simply had no choice but to reduce expenditure and in those circumstances there is nothing sacrosanct unfortunately,” he said.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore today said it was “regrettable’’ that the Health Service Executive had announced cuts in services.
“Every organisation, every department and every service has to obviously work within budget,’’ he added. “My priority, and the priority of the Government, will be to ensure that services needed by people who need care and assistance continue to be provided.’’
Elsewhere, the HSE said that proposed cuts to home-help and homecare services will be considered on an individual basis, a move welcomed by Mr Gilmore.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier today, Laverne McGuinness, national director of integrated services with the HSE. said that while the cuts were necessary, the first aim of the health service “was always to protect front-line services.”
Ms McGuinness said that while €26 million would be cut from home-help and homecare services, there would still be 10.1 million home-help hours available for those looking after people at home.
She also said that home-help cuts were being constantly reviewed and would be considered on an individual basis.
However, groups working with older people and the disabled continued to voice their opposition to the cuts announced yesterday.
The Carers Association said the cuts would likely discourage people from offering to care for family members being discharged from hospital.
“It’s going to put pressure on members of the family who are looking after somebody who is ill at home. It will also lead to earlier admissions to nursing homes as people at home with reduced support will not be able to cope. It is going to lead to longer stays in acute hospitals for people whose families simply aren’t able to take them out earlier…and it’s going to lead to an explosion in queues in emergency departments,” said John Dunne, acting chief executive of the Carers Association.
Mr Dunne said that the cuts would completely undermine the Government’s strategy in relation to healthcare.
“The Government has a coherent strategy in theory which is to encourage people out of expensive acute hospitals by providing greater community and home support services (but) if you start cutting those services then you’re completely undermining the rationale of shifting personnel out of hospitals.”
Dr John Ball, a spokesman for the Irish College of General Practicioners (ICGP), also criticised the Government’s decision to cut home-help and homecare services.
“It really is staggering because it is in everyone’s interest that patients stay at home. It obviously preserves the dignity of the patients themselves (and) the family carers involved. It also seems economically not to make sense because if patients don’t get this back-up care, the risks of falls increases and they end up in A&E.”
The chief executive of Alone, Seán Moynihan, called for an immediate reversal of the proposals.
“These cuts affect the basic needs of the one in ten older people who are in dire need of support which includes daily activities such as washing and cleaning. This is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Home care services are low-cost yet high value. The cost of home care provision is significantly less than that of nursing home care provision, or long term hospital stay and to propose cuts in this area is shortsighted in the extreme.”
The strength of the reaction appeared to take Government by surprise and caused dismay among Labour politicians.
Labour Party chairman and Galway East TD Colm Keaveney said last night he was “very uncomfortable” with the cuts affecting older people and the disabled. While accepting the need to deal with the HSE’s €260 million deficit, cutbacks should be targeted on “trophy areas that appear to be protected” instead of vulnerable groups.
“In the context of political stability, this can’t happen again. If I were minister instead of James Reilly, I’d be tackling consultant salaries and drug costs instead of the areas of greatest dependency.”
Another senior Labour source warned that the Government risked a re-run of the 2008 revolt by older people over changes to medical card eligibility. He claimed the cutbacks wouldn’t have been necessary if Dr Reilly had achieved savings in drug costs and secured a deal to charge more for the use of public hospital beds by private patients.
Siptu said its members working as home helps “will not stand idly by and allow this attack on the sick and vulnerable to proceed”.
Mobile betting call’s boosts Paddy Power profit’s to a record €67m
Chief executive Patrick Kennedy at the announcement of Paddy Power’s interim results at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin yesterday
Betting group Paddy Power is luring more users to its mobile platforms and is poised to launch its latest foray into the online UK casino market as it posted record first-half results.
The company unveiled a 13pc rise to €67.1m in operating profit for the first six months of 2012, with net revenue climbing 29pc to €311m.
But shares in the group fell yesterday as the operating profit fell behind analyst expectations, even excluding losses associated with new ventures. The company also significantly increased its marketing spend in the first half, by 74pc to €35.2m.
Its online operations, including its operation in Australia, generated €49.1m of the group’s operating profit in the first half, or just over 73pc of the total.
The amounts staked online, excluding its Australian arm, rose 31pc to €1.05bn, but operating profit at the unit declined 6pc to €35.9m as the group spent €6m on start-up costs primarily related to its launch in Italy. It began offering services there in May and by June had captured 4pc of the market, according to chief executive Patrick Kennedy.
Volumes
The firm is increasingly investing in the development of mobile games. Mobile games and casino activities generated 20pc and 19pc of total revenues respectively by the end of June.
In Australia, Paddy Power said its online business generated a €13.2m operating profit in the first half, 24pc higher than in the first six months of 2011 as net revenue rose 32pc to €67.2m.
The Paddy Power retail division in Ireland has continued to experience tough conditions. While betting volumes have risen, the amounts staked continued to narrow, falling 2pc to €474m in the period.
But operating profit at its Irish stores jumped 79pc to €9m, helped by what Paddy Power said was the “normalisation” of sports results.
Mr Kennedy said he wasn’t particularly concerned that further tough Budgets would crimp demand for Paddy Power in Ireland for its betting services.
“We have seen tough Budgets since 2008 and 2009. Top line in Irish [betting] retail overall has declined by something close to 30pc,” he said, adding that more than 300 betting shops had closed over the past few years.
Mr Kennedy said that €78m was bet by punters with the group during the summer’s Euro football championship.
That was 168pc higher than during the tournament two years ago. He said the impact on the bottom line wasn’t significant, however, and that the championship was viewed more as an opportunity to gain new customers.
He said that €30m was bet with the group on Olympic events this year — that’s compared to the €2.5m that was bet during the Beijing Olympics four years ago.
Blind woman for 30 years “sees” again thanks to revolutionary bionic eye
She had electrodes fitted to her retina that send impulses to nerve cells, in the same way that occurs naturally in sighted people
A WOMAN who has been blind for almost 30 years can now see shapes again thanks to a revolutionary bionic eye.
Dianne Ashworth, 54, had electrodes fitted to her retina that send impulses to nerve cells, in the same way that occurs naturally in sighted people.
Speaking of the moment doctors switched on her prototype device, the mum-of-three said: “I didn’t know what to expect but all of a sudden I could see a little flash…
“Wow! It was amazing. Every time there was stimulation there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye.”
Although other blind people have had bionic eyes fitted, including Brits Chris James, 54, and 60-year-old Robin Millar this year, scientists who developed Dianne’s say the way it was implanted makes it unique.
Dr Penny Allen led the Australian team of surgeons who performed the operation in Melbourne this May.
She said: “This is a world first. We implanted it behind the retina, demonstrating the viability of our approach.”
Dianne now hopes to see her son for the first time within 12 months as experts develop ways of improving the device while striving to create a complete bionic eye next year.
The implant’s electrodes are connected to a receptor fitted to the back of Dianne’s ear.
That is plugged in to a monitoring unit in a lab at the Australian Bionics Institute.
Two other Melbourne patients have had the device fitted and are waiting for them to be switched on.
Irish residential property prices down 13% on last year
NATIONAL RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES FELL BY 13.6 PER CENT IN THE YEAR TO JULY BUT ROSE BY 0.2 PER CENT IN THE MONTH.
This compares with an annual rate of decline of 14.4 per cent in June and a decline of 12.5 per cent in the 12 months to July of last year.
The slight rise in property prices in the month of July compares with a drop of 1.1 per cent in June and a decline of 0.8 per cent in July 2011, according to the residential property price index published by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.
In Dublin, residential prices fell by 0.3 per cent in July and were 16.6 per cent lower than a year ago.
House prices in the capital were down 0.2 per cent in the month and were 16.7 per cent lower than a year earlier.
Apartment prices were 19.6 per cent lower compared with July 2011.
Residential property prices in the rest of Ireland (excluding Dublin) were up 0.3 per cent in July compared with a drop of 1.3 per cent in July of last year. Prices were 12.1 per cent lower than in that month.
House prices in the capital are now 56 per cent lower than at their highest level in early 2007, while apartment prices are some 63 per cent lower.
Residential property prices in Dublin are 57 per cent lower than at their highest level in February 2007.
In the rest of Ireland, the decline in the price of residential property since that time is 47 per cent, while overall the national index is 50 per cent lower than at its height in 2007.
Davy chief economist Conall Mac Coille said the data reflected transactions in the first half of 2012. New mortgage lending had hit a fresh low of just €974 million, well down on the €1.26 billion in the same period last year.
Prices reflected a “dysfunctional market”, with a very low level of transactions, particularly in rural areas.
Davy said anecdotal evidence suggested cash purchases accounted for up to 40 per cent of transactions, given weak lending, and that a lack of supply had supported prices in the Dublin area.
The firm noted census data that showed the number of households with a mortgage and in unemployment had increased from 14,757 in 2006 to 50,792 in 2011.
“We retain our view that repossessions will have to rise and, coupled with weak mortgage lending and a slow recovery in the economy, house prices will fall further.”
Merrion Economics said it did not see a major improvement in the housing market until there was clear evidence that Ireland’s jobless rate had peaked and was on a sustained downward trend.
“Furthermore, the uncertainty of how a proposed property tax will be calculated is also likely to weigh negatively on house sales/ prices in the run-up to December’s budget.”
KBC chief economist Austin Hughes said it was far too early to make any definitive judgment, but the broad picture emerging was one of a “tentative stabilisation”.
“There is a consistent message across a range of domestic economic indicators that things have stopped getting worse, though that doesn’t mean there will be a dramatic turnaround.”
Property website MyHome.ie, which is owned by The Irish Times, said it was “a little surprised” at the figures, adding that a cautious approach should be adopted when analysing them.
“The new property register, which will record actual transaction prices, is due to go live next month and that is a very welcome development,” said Myhome.iemanaging director Angela Keegan.
Aoife Brennan, head of research at Lisney, said she was not surprised at a monthly decrease in the Dublin index.
For some time, the agency had believed the CSO index was “lagging the market” by about six months.
“Consequently, we believe that the CSO index is under-playing the fall in residential prices.”
Coalition to avoid further taxes on salaries: page 9; ‘Tricky balance’ to be struck on debt forgiveness, says Central Bank economist: Business This Week
Some 4,000 people from 115 countries get Irish citizenship at ceremony in Dublin
New citizens listen to the national anthem at yesterday’s Citizenship Ceremony in the Convention Centre Dublin. Attorney General Máire Whelan and retired High Court judge Bryan McMahon presided over the ceremonies.
IT WAS a day of celebration at the Convention Centre Dublin yesterday as almost 4,000 people from 115 countries became Ireland’s newest citizens.
Many of those present had waited a considerable time to be granted citizenship. Among them was Maria Elizabeth Mallo (50) from the Philippines who has lived in Roscommon for the past 10 years.
“I am very excited today because I have been here for so long working hard to get my citizenship,” she said. “I love Ireland, although being from a tropical country I don’t think I will ever get used to the weather.”
Attorney General Máire Whelan and retired High Court judge Bryan McMahon presided over four ceremonies at which 3,800 individuals were sworn in as Irish citizens, having made a declaration of loyalty to the nation and fidelity to the State as well as undertaking to faithfully observe the laws of the State and respect its democratic values. Paul Ewetuga (42), from Lagos, Nigeria, but now living in Cork city, had also waited for 10 years to get citizenship. “It is good for me today because it will make some major changes to my life such as access to good healthcare and education,” he told The Irish Times. “When I was not a citizen here my life was much harder.”
In his speech, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the granting of citizenship was a major event in the lives of all of those who applied for it. “It is a time of celebration, a rite of passage and a moment for you all to cherish,” he said. Mr Shatter also said Ireland was enriched by the presence of these new citizens.
The first Citizenship Ceremony ever held in the State took place in June last year when 73 new citizens were sworn in. Since then about 14,000 individuals from 161 countries have been granted citizenship at 55 ceremonies.
Dhan Maya Adhikari (39), from Pokhara in Nepal, attended her husband’s citizenship ceremony last September, and yesterday it was her turn. “I am living over six years in Ireland, and it is very nice to become a citizen now like my husband. I like very much the people here, and we are very happy,” she said.
Mr Shatter said attempts by the Department of Justice to deal with the massive backlog of citizenship applications had been successful. He said that when the Government came into office, 22,000 applications were awaiting decisions. More than 30,000 applications have now been dealt with, including almost 17,000 so far this year.
Type A Personalities Have Higher Stroke Risk If Stressed
People with a Type A personality who live with chronic stress are more likely to develop a stroke,
Researchers at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, revealed in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Chronicstress means that the stress is persistent for over six months.
The team gathered data on 150 adults who had been admitted to one stroke unit, they were aged 54 years (average). They compared them to a randomly-selected group of 300 people of the same age and lived in the same neighborhood.
The researchers assessed chronic stress by combining the scores from four validated scales. They looked at major life events and symptoms which are associated with stress, including anxiety and depression, as well as behavior patterns seen in people with Type A personalities.
A Type A personality is ambitious, extremely organized, often sensitive, cares for others, truthful, and highly status conscious. Behavior patterns linked to Type A that the team were looking out for included a quick temper, impatience, aggression and hostility.
The team assessed the participants for stroke risk factors, such as hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, a history of arrhythmias, elevated cholesterol, and daytime drowsiness. Data was also gathered on some of their lifestyle habits, such as smoking status, their consumption of caffeine, energy drinks, and alcohol. They were asked whether they were in employment and had a partner.
Several factors were found to be independently linked to a higher risk of stroke.
People who had experienced a major life during the previous 12 months were four times as likely to suffer a stroke than those who had not, the authors found.
Examples of a major life event include getting married, the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, losing your job, changing house, divorce, or going to college. For many people, when a country goes into recession or an economic downturn, stress increases. A recent study found that a href=”http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241966.php”>stress rises 40% during a recession.
Those with a high score had twice the risk of having a stroke.
Stroke risk was increased by the following factors:
- having a history of regular smoking – twice the risk of stroke
- Consuming at least two energy drinks a day – twice the risk of stroke
- Having some kind of rhythm disturbance – three times the risk of stroke
- Having a high daytime sleepiness score – triple the risk of stroke
- Males were found to be nine times as likely to have a stroke than women
Even when assessing all the factors together, the researchers found that stroke risk was linked to a stressful life and Type A behaviors, regardless of other risk factors and types of lifestyles.
A great deal of research has gone into stress and its effect on our mental and physical health. Researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum found that psychological stress may increase mental and physical illness by altering the control of genes.
