A round-up of other health news in brief
Tutor service will help children with leukaemia
A UNIQUE home and hospital tutor service for children with serious blood disorders which will enable them continue with their studies has been launched this week at a Cork hospital.
The service at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork is being provided by the Children’s Leukaemia Association and is funded entirely by donations and fundraising initiatives carried out by the public.
Newly appointed tutor Mary Ahern will work with children when they are in hospital to receive treatment, while she will also visit them at home to assist them with their education in the first such service to be provided in the State.
Consultant haematologist at Mercy University Hospital, Dr Michael Madden, welcomed the service and said great credit was due to the Children’s Leukaemia Association which supports children and their families during the course of ongoing treatment for leukaemia and other blood disorders.
“School is a normal activity for children and hospitalisation can significantly interrupt their education. Patients with malignancy are a particularly vulnerable group as treatment of their condition often requires multiple visits and admissions to the hospital over a prolonged period of time,” he said. “In addition, their immune-compromised state often prevents them from participating in regular schooling.
Welcoming Ms Ahern, Dr Madden said she was "passionate about her work and already has built up wonderful relationships with the children".
- BARRY ROCHE
Painkillers in drinks get a good reaction
RESEARCHERS at UCC and UCD have developed drinks containing aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen and have established that they have market potential. The team found a beverage containing over-the-counter pharmaceuticals had “sensory advantage and ease of ingesting” over existing products, a document from a Teagasc food research centre reports. The UCC researchers used “Kansei” engineering to identify suitable drinks, such as tomato juice, for the encapsulated pharmaceuticals.
Dentists say incomes are down 25% so far this year
Three-quarters of Irish dentists have seen their income decline by 25 per cent on average in the past year due to the recession and cutbacks in the PRSI dental scheme, according to a new survey.
Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association, said the survey showed that recent changes to the PRSI scheme and planned medical card cutbacks were resulting in people neglecting their dental health.
“I think cutbacks in the PRSI scheme is now having a very real effect because people are no longer getting free treatments and are no longer receiving subsidies, and that has resulted in a decline in people seeking treatment,” he said.
The Irish Dental Association had warned that these cutbacks would have a wider impact and that this survey proved that to be the case, he said.
“We are calling on the Government to reverse cutbacks to the PRSI scheme and to provide sufficient funding for the medical card scheme in order to protect the dental health of the most vulnerable members of our society.”
He noted that almost three out of four dentists had been forced to reduce their prices. Nearly half of those surveyed said they had reduced their fees for the most common treatments such as examinations, fillings and extractions.
Most of the dentists surveyed added that they couldn’t see the situation improving, with 70 per cent expecting their income to decrease further.
The survey was carried out among 120 private practices within the Irish Dental Association in March.
- PAMELA DUNCAN
