Child Health Care in Ireland

The Irish health care system is based on a complex and costly mix of private, statutory, and voluntary provisions. The majority of health care expenditure comes from the state, with a significant proportion of acute hospital care funded from private insurance, but there are relatively high out-of-pocket costs for most service users. There is free access to acute hospital care, but not for primary care, for all children. About 40% of the population have free access to primary care. Universal preventive public health services, including vaccination and immunization, newborn blood spot screening, and universal neonatal hearing screening are free. Major health challenges include poverty, obesity, drug and alcohol use, and mental health. The health care system has been dominated for the last 5 years by the impact of the current recession, which has led to very sharp cuts in health care expenditure. It is unclear if the necessary substantial reform of the system will happen. Government policy calls for a move toward a patient-centered, primary care-led system, but without very substantial transfers of resources and investment in Information and Communication Technology, this is unlikely to occur

Use of the Delphi Process for Initial Investigation of Community Education on Bowel Cancer: A Case Study

Use of the Delphi Process for Initial Investigation of Community Education on Bowel Cancer: A Case Stud

Reducing Childhood Home Injuries: The role of local home safety surveys

Article in Australasian journal of early childhood 20(2):32-41 · January 199

The Development of a School-based Teaching Resource Package for Adolescent Skin Cancer Prevention

Article in Health promotion journal of Australia: official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals 8(2):151-156 · January 199

The needs of families when a patient travels for cancer care

Article in Australian Journal of Rural Health 10(4):188-195 · January 200

Community perceptions of bowel cancer: A survey of Queenslanders

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Australia. The Australian Cancer Society has set a national goal \u27to exploit prevention opportunities and to increase early detection\u27. To address this goal, information about community perceptions is required. Through the use of a Delphi process, a questionnaire was developed to investigate community knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding primary prevention and early detection activities. This paper describes the results of a postal survey of a random sample of 855 Queensland adults selected from electoral rolls. Results indicate that there is a high level of uncertainty about bowel cancer and a belief that many behaviours are related to bowel cancer. While 74 per cent believed that tests could detect bowel cancer, only 52 per cent were confident that a doctor could accurately diagnose it. Only 35 per cent agreed that the public should be screened for bowel cancer and only 10 per cent would get a check-up. Perhaps reflecting the degree of uncertainty among health professionals about bowel cancer, there appears to be a high level of misinformation and confusion in the community. The need for an educational programme to address these issues is discussed. Article in Health Education Journal 54(3):331-339 · September 199

The Brisbane Home Safety Survey and its Role in the Queensland Pool Safety Campaign: Domestic Swimming Pool Fencing Characteristics, Compliance and Attitudes

Article in Health promotion journal of Australia: official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals 1(2):37-42 · January 199

Laboratory Evaluation of Permeability Characteristics of Cocologs

2020, 2020 Taylor & Francis. Cocologs, which are made out of coir fibers, have proven to be an erosion control product along river banks. Cocologs are densely packed coconut fibers wrapped in coir net. This paper presents the laboratory experimental results on the permeability characteristics of cocologs. The permeability of cocologs is a critical parameter in the design of cocolog-stabilized geostructures. In this study, the experiments to determine the permeability of cocologs were carried out in a modified permeability test apparatus using clear water as the permeating medium. The effect of different parameters such as the density of cocolog, opening size (d) of outer cover and orientation of cocologs on the permeability of cocolog was investigated. It was found that the permeability of cocologs increases from 20 mm/s to 85 mm/s when density decreases from 220 kg/m3 to 100 kg/m3. The opening size of the outer net covering of cocologs should not be reduced below a d/L (opening size to the length of cocologs) ratio of 0.0075. It is concluded that the density of cocolog is the only governing parameter which has a significant influence on the permeability of cocologs. Furthermore, an empirical relationship was developed to determine the permeability of cocologs considering the effect of different parameters