A round-up of today's other health stories in brief
Children depict future vision in art
MORE THAN 5,000 children from over 200 primary schools around Ireland entered this year's Sightsavers Junior Painter Awards. Painters were asked to depict My Vision of the Futurein their submission and the 12 regional winners have been chosen. Above is Freedom to soar high like the birds and to dive deep in the seaby Éimear Traynor. The winning paintings will be displayed in an exhibition in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin in February where the overall category winners will be announced.
'Fair Deal' helped hospital reverse its fortunes
THE MANAGER of a 129-bed community-owned hospital and hospice in Ennis, Co Clare yesterday attributed monies from the Fair Deal scheme last year as a contributor to the hospital’s reversal in fortunes.
Paul O’Halloran of Cahercalla Community Hospital Hospice was commenting yesterday on new accounts that show the hospital recorded a profit of €492,156 last year after recording a loss of €209,829 in 2009.
The hospital, which provides nursing home care, day surgical and hospice care, recorded the turnaround after revenues rose by 15.4 per cent from €5 million to €5.7 million in the 12 months to the end of December last.
Ms O’Halloran attributed the rise in revenues last year to additional patients being cared for at the hospital through the HSE Fair Deal scheme.
The figures show the Fair Deal income contributed to the hospital increasing its bed income last year by 18.8 per cent from €3.58 million to €4.26 million
She said: “The Fair Deal made it much more affordable for patients.” However, Ms O’Halloran said that fewer Fair Deal applications were now being approved and, as a result, there was lower occupancy in the hospital.
She said the hospital had also been tackling its cost base. The figures show the numbers employed at the hospital last year rose from 121 to 130 with the hospital’s staff costs last year increasing from €3.38 million to €3.4 million.
At the end of last year, the hospital had accumulated losses of €1 million. However, a high proportion of the figure related to non-cash depreciation.
Child penicillin doses needs review, study finds
PENICILLIN DOSES for children need to be reviewed to take account of the fact that youngsters are getting heavier, experts have said.
Dosing guidelines have remained unchanged for almost 50 years and are mostly based on children’s ages.
But researchers argue that the dose a child needs is determined by their weight – and the average weight of children has increased over the past 50 years.
The average weight today of a five year old is 21kg and 37kg for a 10 year old – up to 20 per cent higher than in 1963, they said.
Many children will actually not be receiving a large enough dose, they added. Low dosing could also potentially drive resistance to antibiotics “with consequences for both the individual and the community”.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers said: "Underdosing may result in the need for retreatment and increases the risk of severe complications."
All the published risk-benefit analyses on the therapeutic balance of antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections assume adequate antibiotic dosing.
“This is a real concern because clinically inadequate dosing would increase the number needed to treat to prevent any severe complications.”
The study, led by a team at King’s College London and St George’s, University of London, said they were “surprised at the lack of recent evidence” to support current dosing recommendations for penicillins.
The authors also pointed out that many infections do not need treatment with antibiotics.
