Employee and locum pharmacists are reminded to ensure pharmacy employers notify the Health & Safety Executive (HSE or the NI HSE in Northern Ireland) if a pharmacist or one of the pharmacy team contracts COVID-19 and was likely to have contracted the infection at work. Employers have clear legal responsibilities for maintaining the health and [...]
Heather Weir, Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Hospice and Children’s Hospice said: “We are very relieved that the Northern Ireland Executive has agreed a short-term funding package for Hospice services. Having learned that the £200m announced by the Chancellor was not for Hospices in the devolved nations, we are thankful that the NI Executive quickly sought to clarify the [...]
Dr Kevin Rafferty FRCA is an anaesthetic doctor presently working in Northern Ireland with experience of working throughout the UK. Whilst working as a locum staff doctor in North Wales, at a time when his wife was unwell and needed support, he decided it would be appropriate to withdraw from anaesthetic training for a period [...]
Dr Martin McMullan is a 57-year-old retired GP from Lisburn, Co. Down. In 2012 he was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer (myeloma) and like many highly vulnerable people, during this pandemic Martin has had to shield himself from the public and his family and so he is currently living in the annex above his garage. [...]
Many people are worried about visiting their doctor or pharmacist during the current coronavirus pandemic and as a result there has been a large drop off in people presenting to their GP or reporting symptoms. However, the public are still being encouraged to use the NHS services as they would do normally. Pancreatic Cancer Action are urging the public [...]
Changes to rules on blood donation will maintain the safety of the blood supply while allowing more people to donate. Health Minister Robin Swann has announced changes to blood donation deferral rules that will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK, where the changes were implemented in November 2017. The decision [...]
Medical students from Queens University Belfast will graduate today [Tuesday 28 April 2020] and join the workforce to help tackle the covid-19 pandemic. The graduation will take the form of an online ‘ceremony’ with students names being called out in turn. BMA Northern Ireland medical student committee chair Leo Mansell said, “Obviously this is [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the whole world. Many countries have introduced extreme measures in order to try and contain this deadly virus. People of all ages are now having to adjust to major lifestyle changes such as staying indoors and losing regular contact with friends and family. But how is this impacting the [...]
Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a disorder of the functioning of the nervous system that involves a problem with the way the brain sends and receives signals – yet for far too long the condition has been cloaked in mystery and misunderstanding. To help us wade through the complexity, Tom Plender, as a musician and [...]
The Coronavirus pandemic that we are seeing in the world at the moment is leading to governments requiring those who can, to keep themselves away from other people. For some, this might mean working from home, or for others it might mean complete isolation from other people for potentially long amounts of time. With the [...]
