Irish medical journal
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The sale to the general public of fireworks is illegal in Ireland. However, many fireworks are readily available on the black market from illegal traders. The number of firework injuries presenting to our unit during the three week run-up to Hallowe'en October 2001 was recorded. ⋯ This small review highlights an ongoing problem in Ireland; fireworks are illegal, yet they are easily and cheaply available without quality or safety controls. Our public awareness campaign has failed to reach its target audience, and the illegal traders who sell these often inferior products are seldom charged. Children and adults will continue to sustain serious injuries as a result.
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Irish medical journal · Jun 2004
Length of hospital stay, diagnoses and pattern of investigation following emergency admission to an Irish teaching hospital.
Data on discharges from acute public hospitals in Ireland is recorded in the hospital in-patient enquiry (HIPE) system; its value in describing the casemix and pattern of resource utilization following emergency medical admissions has not been examined. We wished to determine whether there was a relationship between coded diseases at the time of discharge, patterns of investigation, and length of hospital stay (LOS) in a major teaching hospital. Data relating to emergency medical patients admitted to St James' Hospital Dublin between 1st January and 31st December 2002 was recorded. ⋯ We found that clinical coding using the HIPE database strongly predicted hospital LOS for acute general medical admissions. Spare bed capacity is essential if an acute hospital is to operate efficiently and at a level of risk acceptable to patients. Therefore, determining major influences on hospital LOS is valuable, to develop potential strategies to optimise efficient utilization of acute bed capacity.
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Irish medical journal · Jun 2004
The European Working Time Directive: a survey of surgical specialist registrars.
On 1 August 2004 junior doctors in the Irish health care system and other healthcare systems throughout Europe will no longer be excluded from the provisions of the European Working Time Directive. Their working hours will then be limited by law, first to 58 hours a week and then, by 2009, to 48 hours. ⋯ This survey was undertaken to elicit the opinions and first-hand experiences of surgical specialist registrars (SpRs) throughout Ireland on different working patterns, and the impact of being on-call on their surgical training and lives. The working time directive will undoubtedly shake the foundations of surgery in Ireland and Europe, and meeting the directive by 2009 will require fundamental change if both it and the challenge of providing first class surgical training and safe patient care are to be met.