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Jul 15, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | David Lynch |Sinead Harney |Priscilla Lynch
The IMO has welcomed the lifting of the HSE’s recruitment embargo. However, it has warned that the retention of a “restrictive staffing ceiling” from December 2023 means that chronic resourcing and staffing issues cannot be adequately addressed, which is a “patient safety issue”.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | David Lynch |Sinead Harney |Priscilla Lynch
The IHCA has urged the Government to take the necessary actions to follow through on commitments to significantly increase public hospital capacity in order to address waiting lists. The Association pointed out the latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show a significant increase of almost 328,000 in the number of people waiting for care compared with May 2017 at the launch of Sláintecare.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Sinead Harney |Priscilla Lynch
The highlight of this year’s Irish Society for Rheumatology (ISR) Autumn Meeting was undoubtedly the...
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | David Lynch |Catherine Reilly |Sinead Harney |Priscilla Lynch
The IMO has said that further examination into hospital productivity is needed in order to understand the factors influencing productivity and the measures required to improve the situation. The IMO was responding to the publication today (11 July) by the Department of Health of health service productivity data and insights (available here – https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/e22bb-productivity-and-savings-taskforce-indicator-dashboards/ ).
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Catherine Reilly |Sinead Harney |David Lynch |Priscilla Lynch
The newly established national clinical trials oversight group will propose “sustainable solutions”, with a view to creating “more efficiencies” in the clinical trials system. The group is tasked with developing recommendations to increase the number of trials taking place in Ireland. The first meeting of the group took place today. According to a statement from the Department of Health, Ireland is not attracting as many clinical trials as some other European countries.
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Jul 8, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Sinead Harney |Catherine Reilly |Priscilla Lynch
The IMO has reiterated the need for urgent cultural and systemic changes to “convince NCHDs to stay practising” in the Irish health system. Today (8 July) is Changeover Day, which sees NCHDs rotate to new hospitals for either three, six or 12 months. It is also the first working day for interns. The IMO has said the ongoing recruitment freeze means that NCHDs are being forced to work even longer hours and additional shifts at very short notice.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Priscilla Lynch |Sinead Harney
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy given for stage III melanoma, followed by adjuvant therapy only if there is not a deep response to treatment, promises better outcomes for patients than the current standard of care, which is adjuvant immunotherapy alone. This is according to data from the phase 3 NADINA trial presented at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Priscilla Lynch |Sinead Harney
According to a new study presented at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, adding the antibody-drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin to pomalidomide and dexamethasone for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma was more effective at slowing disease progression or death compared to current standard of care bortezomib plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Priscilla Lynch |Sinead Harney
Osimertinib improves PFS in patients with unresectable stage III EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has been treated with chemoradiotherapy and may be a new standard of care for this population, suggests the results of the international phase 3 LAURA trial presented at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. “There are currently no approved targeted treatments specifically for unresectable stage III EGFRm NSCLC.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
medicalindependent.ie | Priscilla Lynch |Sinead Harney
For patients with locally advanced oesophageal adenocarcinoma that can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy treatment before and after surgery improved survival when compared to chemoradiotherapy before surgery. This is according to data from the phase 3 ESOPEC clinical trial, which was presented at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. The trial compared two treatment strategies for locally advanced oesophageal adenocarcinoma that could be treated with surgery.
