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The latest in nationwide health, medical and emergency services news.
INJECTION CENTRE GO-AHEAD
supervision of a medical professional. Welcoming the decision, Merchants Quay Ireland said the 18-month pilot scheme will allow them to reach people who are currently isolated and vulnerable, offering them vital healthcare and treatment options. “With one death every day in Ireland from a drug overdose, this facility will save lives,” a spokesperson said. Over 120 such facilities exist in countries across the world, including Australia and Canada. The 2016 Programme for Government contains a commitment to open facilities such as this, and laws were passed in 2017 allowing for such centres to open and be run legally.
TB BREAKTHROUGH
Planning permission was finally granted for Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting centre in December. Plans to build the facility at Merchants Quay Ireland’s Riverbank Centre on the city’s south quays have been in the works for over three years, but in July of last year Dublin City Council refused the initial application following fierce resistance from local businesses and residents. Some 99 objections were lodged against the plan. However, on appeal, An Bord Pleanála approved the application at the end of 2019. The facility will consist of seven injecting rooms where drug users can go to inject drugs under the
Scientists at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have made a breakthrough that could lead to improved treatment options for tuberculosis in the future. The team have discovered how TB affects the immune system and how to restart the immunity process. Dr Frederick Sheedy said of the study detailed in the Cell Reports journal: “We found that when TB-infected cells are treated with a key ‘interferon gamma protein signal', which is normally produced following vaccination, they will remove this microRNA to effectively relieve the brake and restore our normal immune response". He insisted that this could have major implications for the future treatment of TB, adding: “Scientists should be able to develop improved immunotherapies or vaccine strategies to help in the fight against TB infection."
HOSPITAL BEDS NEEDED Thousands of new hospital beds are needed during the first two years of the next Government, according to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO). Dr Padraig McGarry, president of the IMO, said: “We are facing a health system crisis that needs real solutions for the sake of our patients.” One major problem is overcrowding, which the IMO said is due to the removal of hundreds of hospital beds from the system a decade ago. This has left Ireland's rapidly ageing population with the fourth-lowest hospital bed per capita ratio in Europe.
The IMO insisted that until there is an adequate amount of beds in the system, the number of patients on trolleys will continue to grow. As a solution, it is calling for "an accelerated programme of investment in acute hospital capacity of at least 5,000 beds to meet patient demand and to ensure doctors can treat patients in a timely manner". It said that 2,000 of these beds should be made available within the next two years. However, this will require "significant upfront investment and recruitment of doctors and other healthcare staff".
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