Five (of eleven) illustrated words for things that have no one-word translation into English by Ella Frances Sanders of Maptia.
The rest here.
Yearly Archives: 2013
Niall McKeown writes:
The back of my baby’s high chair looks like a depressed over worked Irish housewife circa 1974. Just missing a cigarette.
Aingeala Flannery, sitting in for Matt Cooper on Today FM’s Last Word last night, spoke with Paul Cullen, above, Health Correspondent for the Irish Times about criticism of his paper’s report on the the ‘first abortion’ under the new Protection of Pregnancy During Life legislation.
Aingeala Flannery: “Now, the Department of Health has said a termination of pregnancy carried out at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street did not take place under the protection of the ‘Life During Pregancy Act’, as the act has not commenced yet. It was reported in the ‘Irish Times’ today that a procedure carried out a number of weeks ago was the first to be carried out under the Act. Dr. Peter Boylan, the Clinical Director of Holles Street, is extremely unhappy about the newspaper report and says that patient confidentiality has been breached. I’m joined now by Paul Cullen, the ‘Irish Times’ health correspondent, and by Simon Mills, barrister and doctor. Paul, if I could go to you first. You wrote this report in the ‘Irish Times.’ What are the circumstances of the patient who had the termination?”
Paul Cullen: “Well, this my the report in the paper this morning. This concerned a termination which took place at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street recently and involved a woman who was in the second trimester and whose membranes had ruptured and there was a threat to her life. And the pregnancy was considered unviable. And after discussions involving the woman and a number of obstetricians and other medics in the hospital, a termination was carried out.”
Flannery: “Now, the Clinical Director of Holles Street, Dr. Peter Boylan, is extremely unhappy about this. He says patient confidentiality has been compromised.”
Cullen: “Yes, I heard that interview this morning. I can hear where people are coming from, when they refer to issues around patient confidentiality. I would say that, while there are rights to patient confidentiality, there are also rights for the public to know what is happening. And in this case – and in all the reporting by ‘The Irish Times’ on this issue, over the last year and before – we’ve been trying to put out there what is in the public interest. And I think it would be acknowledged by everyone that this new leglislation and the issues around it and the medical practices within hospitals are of huge public interest, and it would be also of intense interest to see how the new legislation fares, and whether it does bring the clarity it means to bring.”
Flannery: “But Paul, the Department of Health is saying it has nothing to do with the new legislation, that it didn’t take place under the ‘Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act.’
Cullen: “Well, certainly the case is the first to come to light since the legislation went through the Dail, and I think there was a wide-spread belief… which the department has surprised a lot of people today by pointing out correctly that the legislation has not yet been commenced – somewhat surprisingly. But certainly cases like this would come under the provisions of the Act, particularly section 7, which relate to medical cases, physical threats to a woman’s health. So I think it’s justified on the basis of public interest.”
Flannery: “Okay, Paul, rather than get tied up on whether the act has come into force or not: you say that you believe that this in the public interest. Why is it in the public interest?”
Cullen: Well, because I think people… obviously, this debate about abortion has raged in this country for many decades. I think that there are very strongly-held views on both sides. As a reporter, I’m trying to relay facts to give as comprehensive a picture as I can, and that’s what I tried to do in this article today. I would point out, for example, that our newspaper was the first to report on Savita Halappanavar.
Flannery: “Paul, this is a different case and I’m wondering do you see that this could be distressing for the woman involved, that she may not have wanted her medical details to be splashed across the front page of a national newspaper?”
Cullen: “Yes, I understand, and I have received mail today, for example, from people who are concerned about the report. I understand that entirely. What I was trying to say was that I have to try and balance in my work, and all journalists have to, the right to confidentiality with the right to public disclosure of information which is in the public’s interest. In preparation of this story, we did leave out other details because of that concern. We also went through legal checks for the article, before a decision to print.”
Listen here
Previously: Holles Confidential
Footage of an underwater sinkhole above a collapsing salt mine in Louisiana shot last Wednesday by members of the Assumption Parish Of Emergency Preparedness.
The phenomenon is part of an ongoing environmental disaster at Bayou Corne which has already forced the evacuation of an entire town.
Spotted in Salthill yesterday evening.
It’s worse than previousley thought.
A cub is born! First photo of the cub, born today at 5:32 p.m. pic.twitter.com/CcHkRGSgHe
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) August 23, 2013
Giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) gave birth to a cub at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo 5:32 p.m. The panda team heard the cub vocalize and glimpsed the cub for the first time briefly immediately after the birth. Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately and began cradling and caring for it.
She’s tired but well and sitting up enjoying a pot of tay. There’s toast on the way.
Watch Mei Xiang and cub here live
News from the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat (National Zoo Washington DC)
Seems a bit of a waste.
Dumped evidence in Ringsend Recycling Centre, Ringsend, Dublin, this morning.
Nuns gotta nun.
Thanks Tim
Dr Peter Boylan, above, the Clinical Director of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, Dublin, appeared on RTE R1’s Morning Ireland earlier to discuss the first reported termination of a pregnancy apparently carried out under the provisions of the new abortion legislation.
Cathal Mac Coille: “What can you say about this?”
Dr. Peter Boylan: “Well, first of all, I’m not sure how the journalist knows that this is the first termination and whether, or not he’s got his facts right.”
Mac Coille: “Is it the first?”
Dr. Boylan: …”I have no idea! We don’t have access to all obstetric units in the country and I doubt if he does too.”
Mac Coille: “Is it the first in the National Maternity Hospital?”
Dr. Boylan: “No, I mean we would be caring for patients and making the appropriate clinical decisions, such as this, regularly.”
Mac Coille: “So just to be clear, are you saying that this is not the first such procedure cariried out under the terms of the new legislation?”
Dr Boylan: “No, well, I can’t answer that! There are reporting mechanisms put in place by the Minister, so that at the end of each year there would be figures available for the public.”
Mac Coille: “Again, just to be clear, when you say, you can’t answer it, you are the Clinical Director of the Hospital, and therefore”…
Dr. Boylan: “It’s not that I can’t, it’s that I’m not going to….(answer)”
Mac Coille: “You’re not denying it, so, you’re just saying that you can’t confirm or deny it?”
Dr. Boylan: “No, I can, but I’m not going to!”
Mac Coille: “Ok.”
Dr. Boylan: “Patient confidentiality is at the key of this whole thing, at the root of this whole thing. It’s absolutely unacceptable for a patients details to be splashed around the front page of a newspaper. One of the first things I’ll be doing today and we’ll be doing it next week is investigating and seeing who is the source of this information who has been giving this out to the public. it’s not fair on patients to do this. And it’s completely unethical if the doctor who was giving this information to the public…”
Mac Coille: “Is it not correct that the Minister for Health is required to publish a yearly report on terminations where they were carried out and the number of terminations. So that this is information that would in the normal course of events become available anyway?”
Dr. Boylan: “It will become available, in a global sense throughout the country, individual institutions will not be named, for obvious reasons. Patient confidentiality will be maintained. But to give our individual detais of a patient to a member of the press is absolutely unethical behaviour, by any medical personnel. And if it’s a doctor, then this sort of transgression,if you like, or bad behaviour could well end up before the Medical Council. Patient confidentiality is absolutely critical in our dealing with women in sensitive and difficult situations.”
Mac Coille: “And is that…, you mentioned the Medical Council’s regulations, what about, is there a particular code enforced at the National Maternity Hospital?”
Dr. Boylan: “There’s a code of confidentiality right across the medical profession. When a patient goes to see a doctor, that’s an episode that appears between the doctor and the patient. When a patient is in a hospital, anything that happens to that patient within that hospital remains confidential. And it’s absolutely critical that it stays the way it is, and its standards of confidentiality are maintained by serious professionals. This is not the sort of behaviour you can expect from a serious professional, it’s completely unprofessional to give details of a patient which allows her to be identified. And can you imagine her distress to find her details are spread across the front of a newspaper and being discussed in the news? It’s outrageous.”
Mac Coille: “Are you talking about a formal investigation, or what kind of inquiry are you intending to launch, and how quickly?”
Dr. Boylan: “Well, that depends on how easy it is! I mean, if someone ‘fesses up and says, ‘yes, it was me and I’m very sorry’, then that’s very straightforward.”
Mac Coille: ” If they do….” (interrupts)
Dr. Boylan: “The most serious thing about this Cathal, is the serious breach in patient confidentiality, that’s the most serious thing about this whole episode….. Patients will get the care they deserve, and we will not let any woman die in Holles Street, we will give her the appropriate care, but we will not have her details splashed around the newspapers.”
Mac Coille: “And if a medical professional were to say, they did it, if that were to arise and to apologise, would that be the end of the matter?”
Dr. Boylan: “It depends, it’s too early to say”
Mac Coille: “Dr. Peter Boylan, thank you very much!”
Listen here
Earlier: First Abortion Mystery
(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
‘Sup?
Aungier Street, Dublin, moments ago.
Thanks Phantom 1052
Uodate:
Mark O’Toole writes:
[They’re] Lads on a stag from Manchester…