An odd mix of medical and social care issues have popped up on the front pages of the broadsheets today for some unknown reason.
Here’s how some of the main headlines read:
‘Mired in scandals, disgraced doctors and misdiagnoses’ – The Irish Independent.
‘Some children in care not seen by social workers in 10 years’ – The Irish Times.
‘Two million swine flu jabs went unused’ – The Irish Examiner.
The Irish Independent reports on how Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has been ‘mired in a series of high-profile scandals and controversies in recent years, many of which have centred on the standard of care given to pregnant women’. You can hear the sound of brown stuff splattering against the fan. Quite a vivid mental image there. Especially for this hour of the morning.
The paper runs a second story on the issue which points to out-of-date scanners, basic equipment not being up to standard and how ‘startlingly poor work practices’ almost led to the death of an unborn baby. They seriously need to screw the nut in that place by the sounds of it.
The Irish Times’ main story does what it says on the tin – apparently there are kids in care who haven’t had a meeting with a social worker in a decade. Bit of a scandal that one.
The paper of record also runs a story entitled, ‘Ex bank chief queries regulator’s role in €7bn Anglo funds’. Apparently the former chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent has questioned the role of the Department of Finance, Financial Regulator and Central Bank in the reporting of his company’s €7.45bn transaction with Anglo Irish Bank. The story goes that ILP’s deposits falsely bolstered the bank’s financial health in the run-up to its disastrous collapse.
The Examiner smells a rat in the whole swine flu vaccine fiasco. They reckon that the rush to stock up jabs came as a result of information provided by dodgy experts who had links to pharmaceutical companies.
The paper runs a second bad news medical-related story on its front page, this one with an all the more immediate threat to well-being. Apparently hundreds of pharma jobs Glaxosmithkline could be under threat as the medical giant, which employs thousands of Irish workers, is about to restructure its operations.
