A round-up of today's other health stories in brief
Midland hospital has worst absenteeism
A NEW HSE report shows that the hospital with the worst absenteeism record in the State is the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore.
New figures provided by the HSE’s internal monitoring system, Healthstat, show the absenteeism rate at the hospital was 8 per cent in September.
This results in 75 of the 941 workers calling in sick any time they are rostered to work. The HSE absenteeism target is a 3.5 per cent rate and the Healthstat figures show that 24 of the 31 acute hospitals evaluated failed to meet that target in September.
Along with Tullamore, the other worst performing hospitals were St John’s Hospital, Limerick; Midland Regional Hospital at Portlaoise; and Midland Regional Hospital at Mullingar.
A HSE spokeswoman could not explain yesterday the high rate of absenteeism at Tullamore. She said that taking into account the fact that not all medical certificates state the illness, it was difficult to determine the reason for the high absenteeism at the hospital.
“However, it should be noted that in October, 91 per cent of the illness absence related to certified sick leave,” she said, adding that there “is strict adherence by managers to the National Managing Attendance Policy in that ‘Return to Work Discussions’ and ‘Absence Review Meetings’ are taking place in all departments and across all grades of staff.”
The more detailed figures for the Midlands Hospital at Tullamore show that 10 per cent of the hospital’s nursing staff called in sick each day in September.
GPs in northeast warn over 'pro bono' services
GENERAL PRACTITIONERS in the northeast have warned the Minister for Health that “pro-bono” services provided to public patients could be withdrawn if there are any further cuts to medical card fees.
In a letter to Minister for Health James Reilly, signed by over 60 GPs, the doctors said they could withdraw from providing services such as blood tests, Warfarin management and chronic illness management as these were not included as part of their General Medical Services (GMS) contracts. These “pro bono” services kept many patients out of the hospital system and in the community.
“In the event of further cuts, it is highly likely that practices will no longer be in a financial position to provide these services,” the doctors said.
They also said it was likely that “many colleagues” would also reconsider their involvement with primary care teams and the Primary Care Strategy.
The letter was written independently of the Irish Medical Organisation, which represents doctors in Ireland.
In the past three years, GPs had experienced an overall 25 per cent cut in public fees, the doctors, from practices in Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan and north Dublin, said.
They said that while they recognised the difficult financial position of the State, they believed reductions in GMS and related schemes would result in “significant worsening in patient care, increased unemployment, an overall reduction in patient services available in the community and an increase in attendances to the already overburdened hospital system”.
Dublin schools get 'write to read'
BROADCASTER RYAN Tubridy yesterday helped to launch a literacy campaign involving eight Dublin schools and communities.
The Write to Read literacy model will see 124 teachers and community workers helping 440 children from disadvantaged areas in Dublin to develop as readers, writers and thinkers.
Write to Read is a school model aimed at enabling schools and community educators to deliver high quality literacy programmes for children.