Tag Archives: HSE

UL Hospitals Group and HSE Mid West Community Healthcare have asked the public in the region to know their available healthcare options ahead of the forthcoming Bank Holiday Weekend. With the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick open for emergency care, and treatment available for less acute conditions in the Injury Units and Medical Assessment Units at the region’s Model 2 hospitals, ULHG and Mid West Community Healthcare (MWCH) have rostered additional staff to ensure patient flow and access is maximised across the long weekend. Over the coming days, standard acute hospital care pathways at the ED and injury units will be supported by an expansion of Community Intervention Team services to run 8am-8pm over the weekend, to ensure timely access through GP out-of-hours referral and improve hospital avoidance, and maximise discharges and transfers. An additional complement of triage staff will support UL Hospitals Group efforts to reduce time between presentation and discharge or the decision to admit. Additional staff …

PEOPLE from Clare are jetting off to the sun for surgery in a bid to avoid long waiting lists in Ireland. An organisation which works alongside the HSE to facilitate surgery abroad, have said the service is particularly popular with Clare residents, confirming they have helped 24 people in the county access treatment in Europe under the EU Cross-Border directive. Among them is well known Ennis business man Ken O’Grady who flew to Spain for an operation after being told he would have to wait four years for surgery here in Ireland. Ken has said he was amazed to discover he could fly to Alicante on Spain’s Costa Blanca to get the operation for free under the EU Cross Border Directive which allows patients here in Ireland to go to other EU countries for healthcare. The cost of his operation at the Vithas hospital in Alicante was reimbursed by the HSE after he called Healthcare Abroad Ireland. Mr O’Grady, owner …

TEACHERS and staff at St Flannan’s College have voiced opposition to plans for the development of a €25 million 100-bed community nursing unit on land used as playing grounds by the Ennis secondary school. According to a statement issued by the staff of St Flannan’s the proposal “will have a seriously negative impact” on the student population. “The green field site in St Flannan’s College is the last remaining site of its kind in Ennis. Urban sprawl is taking up much more of our green spaces each year. Once this land is built upon it will be gone forever,” it states. The teachers and staff have detailed reasons for their opposition to the plans including that during the academic year many teams of various sports regularly train on the pitches. “With so many students on the fields at any one time all our field space is utilised, including much of the space that is suggested for development under the proposed …

THE region is “at risk of a measles outbreaks” due to low uptake of the MMR vaccine since the pandemic, according to the director of Public Health for the HSE Mid-West. Late last month the first case of measles in the Mid-West for four years was detected, Dr  Mai Mannix confirmed during a recent briefing of the HSE to Clare County Council. The case, the first in the country for 2022, involved an individual living in the Mid-West who had been in East Africa where there is a large ongoing outbreak of the disease. Clare’s uptake of the vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella is at 89.1%, however this falls short of the 95% vaccination rate needed for immunity, she told the meeting. Neighbouring Limerick’s uptake of the vaccine is lower again at 82.8%. She stressed the best protection is MMR vaccination, however the uptake rate has declined since the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are working hard with our community colleagues …

THERE have been 250 confirmed cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus, more commonly known as RSV, in the Mid West since October with children making up the majority of those affected by the highly contagious condition the HSE have confirmed. Meanwhile there have been 100 cases of flu in the same time period, and two in five of those affected by the virus children. Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health Mid-West, has urged people to be on the look out for the symptoms and to ensure children are kept at home if they are feeling unwell and kept away from older persons and the vulnerable. She has also urged parents to get their children vaccinated against the flu to protect themselves and others, saying a further increase in cases is expected after Christmas. She was speaking during a HSE briefing of Clare County Council this week where she said, “The issue with flu is as well as people being ill is …

THE parents of the late Laura Brennan have spoken of their pride at the impact of her campaigning and of the comfort they receive from knowing how many lives will be saved through a vaccination programme named in her memory. They were speaking as Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced the opening of the HSE’s online registration portal for the Laura Brennan HPV (human papilloma virus) Vaccination Catch-Up Programme. Eligible people can register on www.hpv.ie for an appointment for a free vaccine which will be administered through HSE vaccination clinics and schools. The programme is supported by Bernie and Larry Brennan, parents of the late Laura Brennan who campaigned for higher uptake of the HPV vaccine before her death from cervical cancer in 2019, aged 26. Free HPV vaccines will be offered to all boys and girls in second-level education who were previously eligible to receive the vaccine and who have not yet received it.  It is also open to young women up to …

TWO Clare children with Cystic Fibrosis who have a rare genotype are being “discriminated against” due to their exclusion from availing of a transformative “wonder drug”, a local councillor has claimed. The HSE has been in negotiations since May with Vertex about giving access for a therapy called Kaftrio for 35 young children with a specific genetic condition. This is already available to other Irish patients under an existing deal. Councillor Mary Howard described Kaftrio as a “wonder drug” that stops the progression of Cystic Fibrosis in the body. She warned that many of the 35 children are not well and have been regularly hospitalised, with more hospital visits expected to increase as the winter progressed. Speaking at a council meeting on Monday, the Fine Gael Councillor said adults and those 12 and older have been receiving Kaftrio. Last May, she recalled all children who were older than six were supposed to receive this drug. “There are 175 children with …

AN ENNISTYMON wheelchair user, with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), has been forced to pay almost 60% of her weekly disability allowance on private care so she can go to bed at night. Trish McNamara (52) requires assistance to get into bed, but was recently informed by the HSE that it doesn’t have anyone available to put her to bed for six out of seven nights in the near future. This leaves the disability activist with two choices: sleep in her wheelchair, running the risk of sores on her skin, leading to ill health and hospitalisation or pay €102 out of her weekly €175 disability allowance for a private person to assist her, which she is currently forced to do. While the HSE pledged to advertise to fill the required hours, the authority noted there is a huge lack of personal assistants and carers in the North Clare area. “I have been asked do I have to continue working at the Cliffs …