A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Training a film lens on elder abuse
THE HSE has announced the winners of its elder abuse short film competition entitled Open Your Eyes – Open Your Lens. The purpose of the competition was to raise awareness of the issue of elder abuse and people were invited to submit a short film of 30-60 seconds.
Tim Shearwood, from Dromiskin, Co Louth, a Dundalk IT student, won the first prize of €1,000 in the education category. All of the winning films can be viewed at hse.ie and youtube.com/HSEIreland.
Galway GP critical of ESB over power cut in clinic
A NORTH Galway GP has criticised the ESB for cutting her electricity supply for six hours during her clinic last week.
Dr Mary Rogan, who runs a clinic in Annaghdown which serves north Galway from Headford to Claregalway, confirmed that the ESB had given her advance notice of the cut, but had not offered any back-up support.
“Under the contract terms, one is obliged to find one’s alternative source of power, but this is virtually impossible for many people, including elderly and sick patients,” Dr Rogan said.
Dr Rogan said that she purchased a small generator, but it was sufficient to run a fridge only. “I had been delivered 500 flu vaccines by the HSE two days before, and it was essential that these be kept cool,” she said.
“I see about 30 patients every day, and my staff had to cancel non-essential appointments. I could not run an ECG for any patient with chest pain, I couldn’t use a nebuliser to ease asthma symptoms, it was cold and dark, and I couldn’t use any computer equipment,” she said.
“For elderly people who were also affected by this cut in their homes, it is very hard to expect them to provide alternate sources of heat. I don’t know how essential the works were, but I know that if an ESB worker came to my door with a chest pain and I said it was not my responsibility and he must find an alternative medical source, I’d be excoriated,” Dr Rogan said.
The ESB said that customers were notified in advance of the outage , which was planned to carry out “essential safety works”. Customers were advised to have stand-by equipment available.
EU states urged to work together on Alzheimer's
EU MEMBER states have been urged to step up co-operation and support to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
The call came in a motion adopted by the European Parliament after a report highlighting the growing prevalence of the disease and the burden it places on families came before MEPs last week.
The report says a new case of dementia is diagnosed in Europe every 24 seconds. The number of people affected by the condition across Europe is now estimated at 9.9 million, with Alzheimer’s accounting for the vast majority of these.
“The number of people suffering from these diseases is expected to rise dramatically by 2020, owing to increased life expectancy and a lack of social life among the retired,” it added.
It estimates the total direct medical and social care costs of Alzheimer’s disease in Europe at €99 billion, but suggests more early diagnosis of the condition may help to manage these costs. It is common for patients’ relatives to be forced to give up their work to care for family members with the disease, it adds.
The report called on the Council of Europe to declare dementia an EU health priority and strongly urged member states to develop specific national plans and strategies for Alzheimer’s.
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Current treatments are aimed at mitigating or stabilising symptoms.
Several Irish MEPs welcomed the initiative, including Labour’s Neasa Childers who said her own mother, who died last year, suffered from dementia.