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The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said that the recent Medical Council’s ‘Medical Workforce Intelligence Consolidated Report 2022’ highlights the lack of workforce planning to ensure we have enough doctors to meet the demands of an increasing population. The report outlines the major, sustained shortfall of doctors across medical specialities, including consultants, GPs and non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs). This shortfall is having a significant negative effect on patient care and doctor welfare in Ireland. Speaking today, Prof Matthew Sadlier, Chair of IMO Consultant Committee s ..read more

More than 111,000 people have been added to hospital waiting lists in the past four years, despite the Government spending a staggering €1.2 billion over the same period on initiatives aimed at reducing patient wait times. The new analysis comes as the latest National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) figures released today reveal that 889,200 people were on some form of hospital waiting list at the end of February. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said that while a further €407 million is understood to have been allocated for the Waiting List Action Plan for 2024, due to be unve ..read more

The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital has become the first hospital in Ireland to use artificial intelligence (AI) across its radiology department in order to accelerate emergency care. The Dublin hospital announced that, since it introduced the new software earlier this year, more than 15,600 patient scans have been analysed. Over 700 pathologies were correctly flagged by AI within two-three minutes of the scan being completed, with 500 intracranial haemorrhages and 200 pulmonary emboli being identified. Mater consultant radiologist Prof Peter MacMahon, said, “our experiences have unde ..read more

Almost 80,000 nurses and midwives are practising in Ireland, a five per cent increase on last year, according to new figures. A report on the nursing workforce also showed a 27 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of new nursing registrants in Ireland, with 6,257 signing up in the 12 months to June 1, 2023. The majority of these new registrants in the past year came from non-EU countries. The top overseas countries from which new registrants came were India (3,272), Philippines (560), United Kingdom (232) and Zimbabwe (169). A total of 1,584 new registrants qualified in Ireland, up tw ..read more

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD has revealed that Ireland is on target, with sustained effort from all stakeholders, to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040. The announcement came as the Minister marked Cervical Cancer Elimination Day of Action, a global initiative to eliminate cervical cancer. Currently, in Ireland, about 300 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and sadly 90 will die from it. The WHO defines elimination of cervical cancer as fewer than 4 cases per 100,000 women. This would make cervical cancer rare, reducing the number of cases to the extent that it ..read more

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly opened the Saolta Radiation Oncology Centre at Galway University Hospital (GUH). This new radiation oncology centre began to accept patients in Q2 2023. This new facility comprises a three-story radiation oncology centre at GUH and will provide state of the art treatment for radiotherapy patients in the West of Ireland going forward, improving waiting times and ensuring equal access to cutting edge therapies for patients throughout Ireland. Opening the new centre, Minister Donnelly said, “this centre is the result of a commitment s ..read more

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has launched a National Open Disclosure Framework for the whole health and social sector. This Framework sets out a consistent system-wide approach for our health and social care services to open communication following a patient safety incident. The Framework will apply beyond the Health Service Executive (HSE) to all private health and social care providers, as well as health regulators and educational bodies. Launching the Framework, Minister Donnelly said, “when something goes wrong with a patient’s care, we must have an open, consistent, compassio ..read more

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton, and Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, have announced a €22.5 billion health services budget in 2024 that will facilitate the continued delivery and expansion of quality, affordable healthcare services. The significant allocation includes a Health Resilience Fund which will support service delivery in response to high inflation and increased patient demand among an expanding and ageing population. Budget 2024 will provide ..read more

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced that patients are now being referred through Regional Fertility Hubs for publicly-funded AHR (assisted human reproduction) treatment. Eligible patients will be entitled to one full cycle of IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) or ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) treatment, provided in a Health Service Executive (HSE)-approved private clinic of their choice. For certain cohorts of patients, up to three episodes of IUI (intrauterine insemination) can be made available. The commencement fulfils the Programme for Government commitment to provide a ..read more