Small victories in transparency
The work of the Public Accounts Committee may finally lead to some proper oversight of how our health system operates. Here is my column from Medical Independent from 6 February 2014. (more…)
‘Cautious optimism’? New unambitious targets for hospital wait times
On Wednesday 25 January, Minister James Reilly held a news conference to announce new targets on reducing the numbers of trolleys and wait times for hospital treatment. It was good news all-round… ‘Cautious optimism’ was the prevailing sentiment of the day. (more…)
Labour’s health policy, how it differs from Fine Gael, and what Sinn Fein are proposing
Yet to blog but if you want to hear today’s health slot, click on here and scroll down to ‘Drivetime with Mary Wilson: Thursday, February 10 (6.40-7pm)’ and press play, its the first item up…
4,500 Dublin hospital staff to strike on ‘outsourcing’
This week public sector unions are back into talks with the government. Yet Siptu is planning a 48 hour all out strike action on 7th April in seven Dublin hospitals. So what is going on? At the centre of this industrial action is ‘outsourcing’. Outsourcing is the jargon used to describe the privatising of services which have been traditionally carried out by public sector workers in public services. (more…)
40% of hospital population malnourished
Malnourishment is not a feature of modern Irish life that we hear much about. And although deficits in hospital care are regularly highlighted, the food you eat or don’t eat while in hospitals is not one of them. A new Dept of Health report ‘Food and Nutritional Care in Hospitals, Guidelines for Preventing Under Nutrition in Hospitals’ was published last week. It outlines how this is a very serious issue which is much neglected. (more…)
SaraBurke.com 
leave a comment