Public Health
MRSA Conference (2)
This is the MRSA collection, having regard to the conference in Trinity college tomorrow. HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE
Calculated
If, in the light of the above, a patient contracts an MRSA infection, is it not clear, subject to rebuttal evidence, that the hospital has failed to protect the patient?
MRSA and Ireland’s Euro Health Consumer Index score
In 2006 the Euro Health Consumer Index put Ireland second from the bottom in a ranking of European states on the delivery of health care to its citizens. Was this a Pass mark for Ireland? Ireland subscribes to the concept of failure and applies it to its citizens in, for instance the Leaving Certificate examination now underway. What of Ireland’s health care system? How do we know if it is failing? More correctly, how do we know that Ireland has […]
Pollution and Baby-talk
What is there to be usefully said about the pollution of the Galway city public drinking water supply?
Drinking Water; a brief Modern History
The European Commission proposed legislation in 1975 to secure clean drinking water for the people of Europe (well, the member States of the EU, anyway). This proposal resulted in the passing of Directive 80/778 EEC. The member States were given five years to bring their systems into compliance. None saw any reason to seek a derogation or extension of time. Events showed that they were not very pressed to comply with the Directive, although they were legally obliged to comply; […]
Foot in Mouth Disease
Government Minister endorses Galway drinking water (conditionally); it’s undrinkable.
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (5)
PROBLEM: (That word again). At least 112 people have fallen ill in Galway as a result of consuming polluted water from the public drinking water supply, The City Council supplies the water to the city and the County Council supplies the water to the county. What is the legal position, of an injured person, arising in this situation? ANSWER: 1. The City Council is a thing of statute. Although its powers and responsibilites are defined by statute it is settled […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (4)
90,000 people in Galway are without a safe public drinking water supply for an indefinite period, following the pollution of the supply with Cryptosporidium, a parasitic micro-organism. Meanwhile there are (at time of writing) 112 reported cases of illness, some serious, although medical experts are of the opinion that the number is far higher. One city councillor, who fell ill, reports she lost a stone in weight as a consequence. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government travelled […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (3)
The Irish Times has carried a claim that the Cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Galway has been ascertained to have arisen from human faecal sources and not animal faecal sources as had been generally implied by the Galway local authorities. The Irish Farmers Association has issued the following statement: “3/28/2007 IFA SEEK AN APOLOGY FROM GALWAY COUNTY COUNCIL IFA Galway County Chairman Barry Donnelly has demanded that Galway County Council apologise for wrongly blaming farmers for the current water crisis affecting the […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (2)
Galway City was due a new water treatment plant. The Minister for the Environment, whose job it is to make provision for such facilities, claims he provided the necessary finance in 2002 for the purpose. He claims the Galway local authority, failed to draw down the money and the Mayor is not fit to hold his job (the Mayor’s, not the Minister’s), on the grounds that the Mayor did not know of the Minister’s fund for the plant. The Minister’s […]