The cervical cancer vaccine is finally being rolled-out for Irish first-year girls after much uncertainty. By Sara Burke.

This week the HSE started vaccinating first year students in 20 schools around the country with the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine is part of a national programme to prevent cervical cancer.

The vaccine was initially recommended by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), but famously in the last few months Mary Harney withdrew the programme, before re-announcing it in the last few weeks.

Emily Logan's investigation highlights State and HSE inefficiency in implementing Children First. By Sara Burke

On Tuesday last, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, published an investigation into the State’s implementation of Children First, the national guidelines on child protection. In the investigation, Logan reprimanded the State’s failure to adequately protect children.

This is the first totally independent report since the publication of Children First (CF) in 1999 – all previous reports have been commissioned or carried out by the HSE or other State institutions. It is also the first systemic report carried out by the Children’s Ombudsman, who up to now has published reports on specific cases but not on the overall system relating to children’s services.

The INMO's annual conference last week rejected the controversial Croke Park deal and proposed a 'third way' in reforming the health care system. By Sara Burke.

Over 300 nurses and midwives gathered in Trim for their annual delegate conference from the 5th to the 7th of May. The first motion considered by the conference was to unanimously reject the Croke Park deal. So why did they do this and what are they going to do now?

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) executive outlined four reasons for rejecting the deal:

The show down between HSE management and IMPACT members has the potential to cause mayhem in the health system, as well as increasing the likelihood of union rejection of the Croke Park deal. By Sara Burke.

Public sector workers have been limiting their activities on a work-to-rule since the end of January, engaging in various kinds of action including non-cooperation with reconfiguration, redeployment, and not answering phones.

This action was a direct response by the unions to the pay cuts introduced in December on top of levies already imposed. These measures have hit low income public sector workers particularly hard.

Just six months ago, the 'Fair Deal' scheme was introduced, changing the way nursing home care is funded and paid for. So how is it faring and has it achieved what it set out to? By Sara Burke.

Up to last October, there were huge disparities in how nursing home care was paid for; if you were in a public bed all your care was paid for out of public money and you contributed 80% of your income.

If you were in a private nursing home bed, some or all of the costs of your care was paid for by the State but it was a matter of pot luck as to how much of it was subvented by the State.

At the Committee meeting for Health and Children yesterday, RTE and the Irish Times were criticised for their lack of coverage of the See Change campaign. By Shane Creevy.

The See Change campaign, launched April 15, is an attempt to lower the level of suicide in Ireland by normalising mental health disorders.

John Moloney, Minister with responsibility for Mental Health Services, outlined the aims of See Change when he said at the Committee meeting yesterday that, “Regardless of how much funding that can be secured from government and regardless of all the capital programmes, unless we break the stigma attached to mental health we will have acquired nothing”.

The idea of universal healthcare is gaining public and political momentum in Ireland. But the current government is unwilling to make strides in this direction. By Sara Burke.

Last week the Irish Medical Organisation launched a document on universal healthcare coverage and the Adelaide Hospital Society held a conference on financing and organising social health insurance in Ireland. What did the respective bodies have to say and where do our political health leaders stand on these proposals?

The south-east stand off is symptomatic of public-private mix. By Sara Burke.

On Thursday’s Morning Ireland programme, there was a very public stand-off between the HSE and Whitfield Cancer Centre (run by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre [UPMC]). UPMC threatened to withdraw radiotherapy services for cancer patients in the south-east from the beginning of May next.