Fury over plans to phase out nursing homes in 20 years

Minister for Older People Jim Daly has become embroiled in a furious row with the nursing home industry over his plans to replace the traditional model of care with retirement villages.

Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) wrote to the minister expressing the organisation's "fury and severe disappointment" over what they described as "derogatory" and "ill-informed" comments. The minister hit back, saying the industry's fury will not "influence" or "deter" him from reforming care for older people.

Last week, the minister told the Sunday Independent that he hoped to replace all of the country's nursing homes with retirement villages within the next 20 years.

Three days after his comments, the nursing homes industry lobby group held an emergency meeting to discuss the minister's plans

See full story from the Irish independent 

Hospital car parking fees to be capped

Hospital car parking charges will be capped at €10 per day, under new plans being introduced by Health Minister Simon Harris.

Hospitals will also be required to introduce discounted multi-day passes for relatives, guardians and friends who frequently visit patients in long-term care. This could include a consecutive two-day car parking pass for €10, a five-day pass for €20 or a 15-day pass for €35.

Hospitals will also be asked to introduce car parking passes which will allow visitors to park on 10 separate occasions over a three-month period.

However, the abolition of car parking fees has been ruled out in the report to be published soon.

Full report in the Irish Independent 

Implant Files: Medical devices may have caused more than 1,000 health incidents last year

 

More than 1,000 adverse health episodes that might have been caused by medical devices were reported to the Irish regulator of such products last year, according to figures released to The Irish Times.

In the period from 2015 to the end of September of this year, 39 of the reports involved a patient death where it was initially suspected that the medical device was a contributing cause.

However, a spokeswoman for the regulator, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), said that in all 22 of the 39 cases in which investigations had concluded, and based on the information available to date, “none of the incidents which involved a patient death were confirmed to be related to a device malfunction”.

Read more at the Irish Times

MEDICAL DEVICES HARM PATIENTS WORLDWIDE AS GOVERNMENTS FAIL ON SAFETY

A global investigation reveals the rising human toll of lax controls and testing standards pushed by a booming industry

Patients across the world now have access to facts about faulty or dangerous medical devices — including life-threatening ones — thanks to the publication of a database that for the first time brings together information from different countries.

Compiled by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and media partners as part of our year-long Implant Files investigation in 36 countries, the database fills a critical information void.

The International Medical Devices Database (IMDD) offers unprecedented insight into a broken system. It permits users to explore more than 70,000 recalls, safety alerts and field safety notices executed in 11 countries in its first release. Users can search by device name, by manufacturer, or by country.

Also see : How Lobbying Blocked European Safety Checks For Dangerous Medical Implants