Other stories in brief...
MEDICAL CARDS:Just 29 per cent of the population now have medical cards, compared with 35 per cent in 1996, the Labour Party has claimed.
"Minister Harney initially promised 30,000 full medical cards and a further 200,000 GP-visit cards during the debate on the Health Estimates on November 18th, 2004," Labour's health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, said yesterday.
"Unfortunately, to date only 36,017 GP-visit cards have been issued. In other words, there are over 164,000 people who should have these cards but don't."
Ms McManus said the cost of going to a GP increased by 7 per cent last year.
"Despite the fact that the Exchequer took in €5 billion more in taxes than they expected, this Government is remarkably stingy when it comes to providing support to the vulnerable.
"Over 380,000 more people would need to be issued with full medical cards today to achieve the levels of cover available 10 years ago," she claimed.
CONTRACEPTION RESPONSIBILITY:Women are no more responsible about using birth control than teenagers, new research has revealed.
A study of almost 1,000 females seeking abortions found 51 per cent of women aged 20 and over admitted to using no contraception compared with 57 per cent of teenagers.
The research, carried out at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, has led to a call for birth control education and promotion to target all women during their reproductive years and not just those in their teens.
The findings appear in the February edition of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG).
INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE SURVIVAL RATES:An initiative has been launched in the west of Ireland in an effort to improve the poor survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac death in the region.
The Lifeline project, launched by Croí, the West of Ireland Cardiology Foundation, aims to train the public in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation.
The initiative, which is in line with recommendations from the Government report of the Task Force on Sudden Cardiac Death 2006, will also promote the widespread availability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) throughout the west.
DEPRESSION AFFECTS SURVIVAL RATES OF COPD:Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who suffer from depression have shorter survival times, according to new research in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Depressive symptoms are common among patients with COPD, but depression's impact on COPD outcomes has not been fully investigated," Dr Tze-Pin Ng from the National University of Singapore and colleagues note in their report.
After extensive analysis, the researchers found that depression was associated with an increased risk of death of nearly two-fold, which was unrelated to COPD severity, the presence of other illnesses, or behavioural, psychosocial or socioeconomic factors.
Depressed COPD patients compared with non-depressed COPD patients had longer hospital stays during the first admission and more total days in the hospital at one year.
BOY SURVIVES TWIN SISTER'S MISCARRIAGE:A baby has survived the miscarriage of his twin sister after doctors carried out a rare surgical procedure to sew him into his mother's womb.
Kelly Bradburn (26), from Perton, West Midlands, was taken into hospital after going into an advanced stage of labour just 20 weeks into her pregnancy with twins.
She miscarried one of the twins, a girl, and was in danger of miscarrying the second when doctors at the maternity unit of Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, sprang into action.
Mr Seela De Silva, a consultant obstetrician at the hospital, carried out a rare rescue cerclage procedure. This involved inserting a stitch into Mrs Bradburn's cervix to close the opening and trap the second twin inside the womb until he was fully grown.
It was only the ninth time this procedure had been carried out anywhere in the world and doctors warned that even after the operation the baby had only a 50/50 chance of survival.
But the gamble paid off as baby Archie was born, weighing 5lb 11oz.