Health
The solution to hospital bed crises: not necessarily more beds
The problems surrounding the Emergency Department at Antrim Area Hospital have made the news several times this week and led to one general practitioner stating that he would not want to go there as a patient (well no one actively wants to be an A+E patient as no one wishes ill health on themselves but [...] more »
Why is it so difficult to downgrade local hospitals?
The response to the Compton Report has thus far been remarkably low key. In part this may be because the Report is so comprehensive and so well argued, backed up by studies and statistics at every turn. Furthermore it says very little that anyone with any significant interest in health policy has not known for [...] more »
Waiting for Godot: Northern Ireland’s health care
Waiting for Godot, one of Samuel Beckett’s greatest works, documents Vladimir and Estragon’s fruitless wait for the eponymous Godot. At times waiting for health reform in Northern Ireland has been rather like Beckett’s play: lots of promises that it is about to happen but nothing ever does. In 1966 there was apparently a plan to [...] more »
Lagan Valley A+E hours reduced
The first example of consolidation of hospital services has now occurred with the reduction in the opening hours of Lagan Valley’s A+E department. This has produced some comment from the local council but possibly a more measured reaction than might have been expected. The Belfast Telegraph has a typically hysterical headline (not on line) about [...] more »
Edwin Poots to reform NI health care?
Edwin Poots was a fairly competent if at times somewhat undistinguished minister in the last Stormont executive. Since, taking on the Health portfolio, however, there are signs he has started to up his game to a marked extent. Initially he made the politically expedient choice as expected by all and gave the go ahead to [...] more »
Altnagelvin goes ahead, but at what price?
Health Minister Edwin Poots said on Monday: Making a decision on the proposed radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin was my first priority as Health Minister. It was vital that I took the time to look at all the evidence properly to reach the right decision for the right reasons. I have now thoroughly reviewed all the [...] more »
Poots gives go ahead to Altnagelvin Cancer Centre
Edwin Poots has announced the go ahead of the Altnagelvin radiotherapy centre. This reverses the decision by Michael McGimpsey to block the centre just before the elections. The new centre is envisaged to open in 2016. more »
“What I can’t do is give a cast-iron guarantee…”
The new Northern Ireland Health Minister, the DUP’s Edwin Poots, has re-introduced doubt about the proposed radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin when, during the election campaign, the NI First and deputy First Ministers’ had promised certainty. From the BBC report Mr Poots said he hoped to make a decision in the next few weeks. “It’s top [...] more »
“It is unacceptable for the Minister and his Department to suggest…”
Possibly related to the point Mick was making… The former leader of Sinn Féin in the Dáil, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, TD, has taken exception to part of a statement by Irish Health Minister, James Reilly, TD, committing the Irish Government to work in partnership with their Northern Ireland counterparts on the development of a new radiotherapy [...] more »
“We are going to proceed with the Altnagelvin extension [] and that’s the end of the matter.”
The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers’ separately declared commitment to reverse the NI Health Minister’s decision to postpone the funding of a new radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin hospital is yet another populist move without regard to budgetary considerations – this time just ahead of an election. It also undermines the position of the smaller parties [...] more »
McGimpsey’s Health Service
When Michael McGimpsey announced that the new radiotherapy centre in Altnagelvin would not be built for the meantime there was the predictable outcry from patients’ groups, the Western Trust etc. Martina Anderson denounced the decision as political: that much is to be expected; Anderson’s role has often seemed to be to play the republican representative [...] more »
Fighting bowel cancer, or ‘jam on your eclairs’…
Interesting series of YouTubes from Podge and Rodge tackling the vexed question of bowel cancer… And rightly, IMHO, getting it all out in the open…. Put together by the Irish Cancer Society, so don’t hestitate to contact them if you;re affected by this condition… And in Northern Ireland you can find the right contact through [...] more »
The breakdown of health service cuts revealed
The scale of cuts to the Health Service, – a service that’s supposed to be ring fenced but now subject to lower rates of investment – is revealed by a union-sponsored website False Economy and extracted by the Guardian’s Data Blog. The info is collated from FoI requests throughout the UK . A long scroll [...] more »
“Next time they might try openness and joined-up thinking”
I was somewhat blunter in my initial assessment of the Northern Ireland Executive’s spending plans, but I get the impression Patrick Murphy, in The Irish News, agrees. Their budgetary plans tell us three things – departments do not talk to each other, few of them know what a customer is and most ministers do not [...] more »
Bullshit, and joined-up government…
Some four weeks after the departmental allocations were agreed and all Northern Ireland Executive departments have, to a greater or lesser extent, finally published their spending plans. Don’t worry, though. There’ll be an extra week of that public consultation… Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, is complaining that the UK Treasury has [...] more »
“His position remains that the evidence of efficacy and the scientific basis of homeopathy is highly questionable”
‘His position’ in the title would be that of the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. But, as we know, the scientific illiteracy that prevails in the House of Commons is legendary. And, regardless of their Chief Scientific Adviser’s position, the UK Government have published their response [pdf file] to the Commons Science and Technology Committee’s Report, Evidence Check on Homeopathy. Here are the main [...] more »
The strange case of Ex-Dr Wakefield and the MMR vaccine…
Andrew Wakefield is the ex-doctor, whose scant regard for scientific accuracy or ethics has led to him being struck off the medical register. Yesterday the General Medical Council (GMC) found him guilty of serious professional misconduct, having found him guilty last January of having “showed a callous disregard” for the suffering of children, saying also [...] more »
Service not available in Northern Ireland
Channel 4’s decision not to broadcast the Marie Stopes ‘Are you late?’ TV advert in Northern Ireland raises questions about what information it is criminal to distribute here. The Chief Executive of Marie Stopes International told the Guardian that ‘the advertising of abortion facilities, their contact numbers or addresses is against the law in Northern [...] more »
Recessions – good for your health?
A couple of weeks back, writing in the Sindo, Gene Kerrigan made the not unreasonable assertion that severe recessions cause unnecessary deaths. We saw all this before. During the Eighties, savage cuts inflicted lasting pain and cost lives — someone had to pay for the crisis. Meanwhile, known to the establishment — who were up [...] more »
“have you seen The Wire?”
Bobballs’ first blog round-up for the Belfast Telegraph included a suitably sceptical post by Keith Belfast in the face of apparent local political unanimity in support of the banning of mephedrone – despite actual evidence of harm from the drug’s use being largely absent and amid concerns about political interference in the work of the [...] more »
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Books
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Propaganda of Peace: Media and culture during the peace process
Extract from Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker: The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of Media and Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2010. Political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new executive in May 2007, closing yet another chapter in [...] read our review »
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The ANC, the IRA and the rise of influence of the left within Sinn Fein…
World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the credit [...] read our review »
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Children of the Revolution (Bill Rolston)
What was life like for children of political activists during the Troubles? A new book by Bill Rolston and published by Guildhall Press during the summer has collected together the stories of twenty Children of the Revolution whose parents’ activities – and in many cases, imprisonment – had a significant affect on childhoods and life [...] read our review »
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