Report of the Benzodiazepine Committee

This comprehensive Report, which marks the fruition of extensive work and consultations undertaken by the Benzodiazepine Committee represents a major step towards addressing inappropriate benzodiazepine use in this country. It sets out in some detail the facts about benzodiazepine usage in Ireland and makes recommendations across a number of areas. It also includes Good Practice Guidelines to assist clinicians in adopting best practice in what is a complex and difficult area.   Download document here

Implementation of Recommendations of the Commission on Nursing - Third Annual Progress Report of the Monitoring Committee

Implementation of Recommendations of the Commission on Nursing – Third Annual Progress Report of the Monitoring Committee This is the third annual report of the Monitoring Committee established by the Minister for Health and Children to oversee progress in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Commission on Nursing A Blueprint for the Future. It outlines the further progress made during 2002 in achieving targets set out in the Priority Action Plan for 2002 and 2003 agreed between the Department of Health and Children and the Nursing Alliance. Click here to download PDF 50kb

Muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis in the New World: The ultimate subversion.

Infection by the human protozoan parasite Leishmania can lead, depending primarily on the parasite species, to either cutaneous or mucocutaneous lesions, or fatal generalized visceral infection. In the New World, Leishmania (Viannia) species can cause mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL). Clinical MCL involves a strong hyper-inflammatory response and parasitic dissemination (metastasis) from a primary lesion to distant sites, leading to destructive metastatic secondary lesions especially in the nasopharyngal areas. Recently, we reported that metastasizing, but not non-metastatic strains of Leishmania (Viannia) guyanensis, have high burden of a non-segmented dsRNA virus, Leishmania RNA Virus (LRV). Viral dsRNA is sensed by the host Toll-like Receptor 3 (TLR3) thereby inducing a pro-inflammatory response and exacerbating the disease. The presence of LRV in Leishmania opens new perspectives not only in basic understanding of the intimate relation between the parasite and LRV, but also in understanding the importance of the inflammatory response in MCL patients.

Implementation of Recommendations of the Commission on Nursing - Third Annual Progress Report of the Monitoring Committee

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Report of the Department of Health Cervical Screening Committee

The Working Party was appointed as a committee of experts by the then Minister of Health, Dr John Oâ?TConnell T.D., in October, 1992 to review cervical screening with the following terms of reference: - - To review the implementation of the recommendations of the Interim Report of the Working Party on Cervical  Screening 1988; - To review the general efficacy and cost effectiveness of the operation of the present systems; and - To consider what further cost effective improvements can be made.     Download the Report here  

Implementation of Recommendations of The Commission on Nursing - First Annual Progress Report of Monitoring Committee

The focus of this first annual report is on the progress made during 2000 in implementing the recommendations contained in the priority Action Plan. However, the Monitoring Committee acknowledges that certain other key recommendations of the Commission were implemented in 1998/1999. A summary of these are included in this report in order to provide a comprehensive overview of all that has been achieved since the Commission’s report was launched. Download the Report here

AIDS Strategy 2000: Report of the National AIDS Strategy Committee

This Report is the second report of the National AIDS Strategy Committee (NASC). It comprises the reports of the four Sub-Committees of NASC – Surveillance, Education and Prevention, Care and Management and Discrimination Download the Report here

Speech by Mr Micheál Martin TD at Launch of Pre-Registration Nursing Degree Programme

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am very pleased that you were all able to accept my invitation to join me here today on this landmark occasion for nursing education. It is fitting that all of the key stakeholders from the health and education sectors should be so well represented at the launch of an historic new development. Rapid and unpredictable change throughout society has been the hallmark of the twenty-first century, and healthcare is no exception. Regardless of what change occurs, no one doubts that nursing is intrinsic to the health of this nation. However, significant changes in nurse education are now needed if the profession is to deliver on its social mandate to promote people´s health by providing excellent and sensitive care. As science, technology and the demands of the public for sophisticated and responsive health care become increasingly complex, it is essential that the foundation of nursing education is redesigned. Pre-registration nursing education has already undergone radical change over the past eight years, during which time it has moved from an apprenticeship model of education and training to a diploma based programme firmly rooted in higher education. The Secretary General of my Department, Michael Kelly, played a leading role in bringing about this transformation, which has greatly enhanced the way students are prepared for entry to the nursing profession. The benefits of the revised model of education are clearly evident from the quality of the nurses graduating from the diploma programme. The Commission on Nursing examined the whole area of nursing education, and set out a very convincing case for educating nursing students to degree level. It argued that nurses of the future would be required to possess increased flexibility and the ability to work autonomously. A degree programme would provide nurses with a theoretical underpinning that would enable them to develop their clinical skills to a greater extent and to respond to future challenges in health care, for the benefit of patients and clients of the health services. The Commission has provided a solid framework for the professional development of nurses and midwives, including a process that is already underway for the creation of clinical nurse specialist and advanced nurse practitioner posts. This process will facilitate the transfer of skills across divisions of nursing. In this scenario, it is clearly desirable that the future benchmark qualification for registration as a nurse should be a degree in nursing studies. A Nursing Education Forum was established in early 1999 to prepare a strategic framework for the implementation of a nursing degree programme. When launching the Forum´s report last January, I indicated that the Government had agreed in principle to the introduction of the proposed degree programme next year. At the time two substantial outstanding issues had yet to be resolved, namely the basis on which nurse teachers would transfer from the health sector to the education sector and the amount of capital and revenue funding required to operate the degree programme. My Department has brokered agreements between the Nursing Alliance and the Higher Education Institutions for the assimilation of nurse teachers as lecturers into their affiliated institutions. The terms of these agreements have been accepted by all four nursing unions following a ballot of their nurse teacher members. I would like to pay particular tribute to all nurse teachers who have contributed to shaping the position, relevance and visibility of nursing through leadership, which embodies scholarship and excellence in the profession of nursing itself. In response to a recommendation of the Nursing Education Forum, I established an Inter-Departmental Steering Committee, chaired by Bernard Carey of my Department, to consider all the funding and policy issues. This Steering Committee includes representatives of the Department of Finance and the Department of Education and Science as well as the Higher Education Authority. The Steering Committee has been engaged in intensive negotiations with representatives of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities and the Institutes of Technology in relation to their capital and revenue funding requirements. These negotiations were successfully concluded within the past few weeks. The satisfactory resolution of the industrial relations and funding issues cleared the way for me to go to the Government with concrete proposals for the implementation of degree level education for nursing students. I am delighted to announce here today that the Government has approved all of my proposals, and that a four-year undergraduate pre-registration nursing degree programme will be implemented on a nation-wide basis at the start of the next academic year, 2002/2003. The Government has approved the provision of capital funding totalling £176 million pounds for a major building and equipment programme to facilitate the full integration of nursing students into the higher education sector. This programme is due to be completed by September 2004, and will ensure that nursing students are accommodated in purpose built schools of nursing studies with state of the art clinical skills and human science laboratories at thirteen higher education sites throughout the country. The Government has also agreed to make available the substantial additional revenue funding required to support the nursing degree programme. By 2006, the full year cost of operating the programme will rise to some £43 million pounds. The scale of this investment in pre-registration nursing education is enormous by any yardstick. It demonstrates the firm commitment of myself and my Government colleagues to the full implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Nursing, of which the introduction of pre-registration degree level education is arguably the most important. This historic decision, and it is truly historic, will finally put the education of nurses on a par with the education of other health care professionals. The nursing profession has long been striving for parity, and my own involvement in the achievement of it is a matter of deep personal satisfaction to me. I am also pleased to announce that the Government has approved my plans for increasing the number of nursing training places to coincide with the implementation of the degree programme next year. Ninety-three additional places in mental handicap and psychiatric nursing will be created at Athlone, Letterkenny, Tralee and Waterford Institutes of Technology. This will yield 392 extra places over the four years of the degree programme. A total of 1,640 places annually on the new degree programme will thus be available. This is an all-time record, and maintaining the annual student intake at this level for the foreseeable future is a key element of my overall strategy for ensuring that we produce sufficient “home-grown” nurses for our health services. I am aware that the Nursing Alliance were anxious that some funding would be provided for the further academic career development of nurse teachers who transfer to one of the six Universities that will be involved in the delivery of the degree programme. I am happy to confirm that up to £300,000 in total per year will be available for this purpose over the first four years of the degree programme. In line with a recommendation of the Commission on Nursing, my Department will have responsibility for the administration of the nursing degree budget until the programme has been bedded down in the higher education sector. A primary concern will be to ensure that the substantial capital and revenue funding involved is ring-fenced for nursing studies. It is intended that responsibility for the budget will be transferred to the Department of Education and Science after the first cohort of nursing degree students have graduated in 2006. In the context of today´s launch, it is relevant to refer to a special initiative that I introduced last year to assist registered nurses wishing to undertake part-time nursing degree courses. Under this initiative, nurses are entitled to have their course fees paid by their employers in return for a commitment to continue working in the public health service for a period following completion of the course. This initiative has proved extremely popular with large numbers of nurses availing of it. I want to confirm here today that the free fees initiative will continue in operation until 2005, at a total cost of at least £15 million pounds. I am giving this commitment in order to assure this year´s intake of nursing students to the final diploma programmes that fee support for a part-time nursing degree course will be available to them when they graduate in three years time. The focus of today´s celebration is rightly on the landmark Government decision to implement the nursing degree programme next year. As Minister for Health and Children, and as a former Minister for Education, I also have a particular interest in the educational opportunities available to other health service workers to upgrade their skills. I am pleased to announce that the Government has approved my proposals for the introduction of a sponsorship scheme for suitable, experienced health care assistants who wish to become nurses. This new scheme will commence next year and will be administered by the health boards. Successful applicants will be allowed to retain their existing salaries throughout the four years of the degree programme in return for a commitment to work as nurses for their health service employer for a period of five years following registration. Up to forty sponsorships will be available annually. The new scheme will enable suitable applicants to undertake nursing education and training without suffering financial hardship. The greatest advantage of the scheme will be the retention by the public health service of staff who are supported under it, since they will have had practical experience of working in the service and their own personal commitment to upgrading their skills will be informed by that experience. I am confident that the sponsorship scheme will be warmly welcomed by health service unions representing care assistants as providing an exciting new career development path for their members. Education and health are now the two pillars upon which the profession of nursing rests. We must continue to build bridges, even tunnels where needed to strengthen this partnership. We must all understand partnerships donâ?Tt just happen they are designed and must be worked at. The changes outlined here today are powerful incentives for those in healthcare agencies, academic institutions and regulatory bodies to design revolutionary programmes capable of shaping a critical mass of excellent practitioners. You have an opportunity, greater perhaps than has been granted to any other generation in history to make certain those changes are for the good. Ultimately changes that will make the country a healthier and more equitable place to live. The challenge relates to building a seamless preparatory programme which equally respects both education and practise as an indivisible duo whilst ensuring that high tech does not replace the human touch. This is a special day in the history of the development of the Irish nursing profession, and I would like to thank everybody for their contribution. I want to express my particular appreciation of two people who by this stage are well known to all of you – Bernard Carey of my Department and Siobhán O´Halloran of the National Implementation Committee. Bernard and Siobhán have devoted considerable time and energy to the project on my behalf over the past fourteen months or so. That we are here today celebrating the launch of degree level education is due in no small part to their successful execution of the mandate that I gave them. We live in a rapidly changing world, one in which nursing can no longer rely on systems of the past to guide it through the new millennium. In terms of contemporary healthcare, nursing is no longer just a reciprocal kindness but rather a highly complex set of professional behaviours, which require serious educational investment. Pre-registration nurse education will always need development and redesign to ensure our health care system meets the demands of modern society. Nothing is finite. Today more than ever the health system is dependent on the resourcefulness of nursing. I have no doubt that the new educational landscape painted will ensure that nurses of the future will be increasingly innovative, independent and in demand. The unmistakable message from my Department is that nursing really matters. Thank you.

Report of Care and Management Sub-Committee of the National AIDS Strategy Committee on HIV/STI Services in Ireland

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Breastfeeding in Ireland. A five-year strategic action plan - National Committee on Breastfeeding 2005

The protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding has been identified in many national policy documents as a major public health issue. Breastfeeding offers mothers and babies significant health advantages both in the short term and throughout their lives.From a health policy point of view, it is generally agreed that the better health afforded by breastfeeding can result in major savings in the provision of health care. Studies have also shown that breastfeeding has a positive effect on the wider economy with fewer days being lost by employed parents of breastfed babies to illness. Although progress is being made in promoting and supporting this health enhancing, environmentally friendly and low-cost feeding option, breastfeeding rates in Ireland continue to be among the lowest in Europe. This Strategic Action Plan has been developed by a Ministerial appointed, multi-disciplinary National Committee on Breastfeeding, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to further promote breastfeeding among all sectors of the population and particularly among those currently least likely to breastfeed. Its goal is the achievement of optimum health and well-being for children, their mothers, families and communities. Click here to download PDF

Cultural male circumcision - Report of Committee 2004/2005

Male circumcision is performed for two general reasons namely where there are medical indications or for cultural requirements. The tragic death of a male infant following a circumcision performed outside the health-care setting highlighted the need to provide recommendations for health-care providers to help prevent such circumstances arising again. The Minister for Health and Children established a group to advise on the needs, ethical recommendations and practical guidance on circumcision performed for cultural reasons. At all times, the welfare of the child was considered paramount. Read the report (PDF, 83kb)

Cardiovascular Disease In Women (Quality in Practice Committee)

Cardiovascular Disease In Women (Quality in Practice Committee) Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in men and women on a global basis. CVD affects men and women equally but evidence suggests that it is neither diagnosed as readily, nor treated as effectively, in women. Click here to download PDF 1.7mb

Opening statement by Mr Michael Scanlan, Secretary General of the Department of Health & Children at the meeting of the DÃil Committee of Public Accounts on 7th May 2009

Opening statement by Mr Michael Scanlan, Secretary General of the Department of Health & Children at the meeting of the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts on 7th May 2009 Click here to download PDF 37kb

Implementation of the Action Plan for Health Research 2009-13 - First year report 2009-2010

In November 2009 the Government published an Action Plan for Health Research. The Plan was prepared by the Health Research Group following a commitment set out in Building Ireland’s Smart Economy (December 2008). The Action Plan, which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, provides the lead on national priorities and resource allocation in health research. The Action Plan was prepared to prioritise a programme of actions essential to creating a health research system which supports outstanding individuals, working in world class facilities and conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public. The HRG is committed to measuring the success of the Action Plan by the extent to which it meets these deliverables by 2013. One year on, this report reviews the progress being made to implement the Plan.