My Health Month – Niamh Cahill
Chronic overcrowding in hospital emergency departments causes concern, a new study suggests Alzheimer seeds can transfer from person to person via surgical equipment and severe inadequacies in the country’s maternity services are highlighted.
Overcrowding
As September rolls in, figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reveal a 40 per cent increase in emergency department overcrowding in August compared to the same month last year.
The INMO warns the situation will worsen unless bed capacity is increased in hospitals.
A week later the crisis hits the headlines once again when it is revealed that an elderly man was forced to spend five days on a hospital trolley at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
Claims emerge that St Vincent’s University Hospital is under-estimating overcrowding levels and the INMO warns that hospitals may not be able to cope with overcrowding this winter following increases in trolley numbers in summer months. The problem continues and on September 29 INMO figures show 428 patients languish on trolleys in emergency departments across the country.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar expresses concern and vows: “heads will have to roll” unless the issue is addressed.
Alzheimer’s transmission
A controversial study from the journal Nature generates worldwide attention when it suggests that seeds from the Alzheimer’s disease can stick to surgical equipment and could potentially transfer from person to person during surgery. The research prompts concern about the safety of medical and dental procedures and unease that Alzheimer’s could be contagious. Researchers make the discovery when examining a form of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), which affects nerve cells in the brain and can be spread through contaminated surgical equipment and procedures.
They find that healthy individuals could be at risk in a study of the brains of eight CJD patients and call for more research into transmission. In response to the research, Tina Leonard, Head of Advocacy and Public Affairs at The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland, is quoted as stating:
“While the findings certainly sound alarming, there is currently no evidence that Alzheimer’s is a contagious condition that can be transmitted from person to person via a medical procedure.”
Maternity Services Under Pressure
Dr Sam Coulter-Smith, Master at the Rotunda Hospital, highlights that most of the country’s large maternity units are under-staffed.
Midwife to patient ratios and consultant to patient ratios are well below acceptable levels and consultant numbers should increase by at least 57 per cent, Dr Coulter-Smith tells a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee.
He advises that Ireland has just one consultant for every 800 deliveries when it should have one consultant for every 350 deliveries and sites numerous reports recommending an increase in consultant numbers.
“I’m not sure how many more investigations, reports, recommendations are required or how many more adverse events will be required to get those who oversee and fund the health service to recognise the need to invest in the quality staff required to keep our mothers and babies safe,” he outlines.
He accuses the HSE of doing nothing to address concerns raised by those working in maternity services around staffing, infrastructure and resources.
The HSE’s failure to listen to the concerns: “speaks volumes and suggests that those overseeing the health service at the highest levels were more interested in budgets and headcount than safety of services,” he claims.
Other news in brief
- The Diabetes Cycle of Care is launched offering GP services to around 70,000 Type 2 diabetes patients with GP visit and medical cards. The development, welcomed by many healthcare professionals as the first step towards a more comprehensive package of care, officially marks the beginning of chronic disease management in general practice.
- Women older than 43 years of age have a greatly reduced reproductive potential compared to women aged between 40 and 42, a new study published in the Irish Medical Journal The study, using data from the Human Assisted Reproduction Ireland (HARI) Clinic at the Rotunda Hospital, highlights that between 1997 and 2013 the proportion of patients between 40 and 45 undergoing assisted reproductive technologies (ART) at the tertiary referral ART clinic increased from 7.2 per cent to 19.8 per cent.
- The State’s health watchdog, HIQA, launches a nationwide consultation around whether or not the universal newborn BCG vaccination programme should cease in line with TB prevention practices in other European countries. HIQA proposes the introduction of a selective screening programme, which would see vaccinations falling from 61,000 annually to around 8,000.
- Finally, the satirical website Waterford Whispers News publishes a story on doctors featuring the headline: “Irish Junior Doctor Doesn’t Mind Working For A Week Straight Without Any Sleep”. The story states: “Speaking to WWN with an intravenous coffee drip attached to her veins, Ciara Rafferty, a doctor in St Vincent’s Hospital said working a full week with close to no sleep is in fact ‘grand’”.
Did you know…?
Studies released this month revealed that:
- There is no link between coffee consumption and atrial fibrillation, a common type of irregular heartbeat (Journal BMC Medicine).
- Taking blood pressure drugs at bedtime may help to prevent Type 2 Diabetes (Journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes).
- Irish people are paying €600 million more for healthcare than in 2007 (Trinity College Dublin).
Quote of the month
“I have no reason to believe it won’t be worse than last year and that really means a head or heads will have to roll” – Health Minister Leo Varadkar on the overcrowding crisis and the failure of senior health officials to tackle the problem.
Tweet of the month
“Maybe I’m taking this up wrong. Are Leo & Enda planning to guillotine patients in an effort to fix trolley crisis?” – Eoin MacDonncha remarks in relation to a newspaper headline about Taoiseach Enda Kenny defending Leo Varadkar’s warning that heads will roll if the trolley crisis continues.
Niamh Cahill