Posts by Niamh Cahill

The HSE is negotiating with individual private hospitals nationally on capacity arrangements in the event of a Covid-19 surge after a recommendation from the Private Hospitals Association (PHA) stating that this “would be more appropriate”.  The Executive has written to individual private hospitals and is currently “refining its requirements” around capacity and services sought in…

The potential for rolling out a new TV advert for stroke symptom awareness has been raised at a subgroup of the national public health emergency team (NPHET), with Covid-19 being possibly linked to an increased stroke risk. The HSE has confirmed it is working on developing a new campaign with the Irish Heart Foundation. A…

Concern has been raised by GPs regarding available capacity within general practice to rollout the influenza vaccine to around 750,000 children this winter. In May, the Government announced plans to extend provision of the vaccine to children aged 2 to 12 years without charge. A total of 600,000 doses of Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV)…

The HSE National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP) unit has launched the call for Aspire proposals from potential supervisors for post CSCST fellowships.  Successful proposals will be selected as Aspire Fellowships. The HSE NDTP in conjunction with HSE Acute Operations launched the NDTP Aspire Fellowship Awards in 2017 with an aim of stimulating the creation…

Scientists have found that air pollution in the winter is associated with more hospitalisations for all strokes in Dublin. The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the current edition of Cerebrovascular Diseases. During winter months in Ireland, particularly in Dublin, higher levels of fine particles, coarse particles, sulphur dioxide…

HIQA has published an overview report on its ­monitoring activity in healthcare services in Ireland between January 2015 and December 2019. It identifies areas of progress that it concludes have been driven through HIQA monitoring across public acute hospitals, and also some outstanding areas still left for improvement. “Our experience over the last five years,…

HIQA has published two evidence summaries to support the National Public Health Emergency Team’s (NPHET’s) response to Covid-19. A new report summarises the best available evidence on whether non-contact thermal screening could be used to effectively identify cases of Covid-19. HIQA identified 11 primary studies, three rapid reviews and one systematic review relating to Covid-19 and…