The Clare People Archive

PATIENTS’ lives are being put in jeopardy every day because Non Consultants Hospital Doctors (NCHD) are being forced to work up to 40 hours straight before undertaking complex medical procedures.

That is the opinion of one Clareborn NCHD who says that he himself has carried out spinal taps and other complex procedures while severely sleep deprived. The doctor, who has asked not to be identified, also says that a number of NCHD’s are suffering from depression brought about by the mental and physical pressure of the job and a mass emigration of Irish doctors could soon take place.

“When you hear people calling them Junior Doctors it gives the impression that they are young people and inexperienced. The reality is that a lot of the most senior people in hospitals, and the most senior people in hospitals at night are NCHDs,” he said.

“The person who would look after you if you present with a heart attack at night is a NCHD, who could easily have been working for the previous 40 hours straight. If you go into A&E with a severe headache and you need a lumbar puncture [spinal tap], that will be done by a NCHD. The hospitals are pretty much staffed by NCHDs at weekend and out of hours. I myself have done lumbar punctures after being awake for 30 hours straight; it is not best practice but it’s the situation that we are placed in.

“I don’t think a lot of people believe the working hours. Under the European Work Time Directive we should be limited to 48 hours and we should never work more than a 13 hour shift.

“The hours that NCHDs are doing varies a lot. If you are in a peripheral hospital, which has only four medical registrars, they will often have to do two 24-hour shifts per week on top of their normal working week. So they will frequently be doing 80 or 90 hours weeks. Sometimes people will do on-call for an entire weekend and you would work 72 hours straight.

“It sounds preposterous, but it happens. I’ve done it myself. I’ve come into work on a Friday morning and I’ve left on a Monday afternoon. I’ve nearly crashed the car driving home on a number of occasions, just falling asleep at the wheel. I’m sure we’ve all made countless errors that we don’t even realise.

“After working 24 hours straight the first thing that goes is your patience and your ability to deal with people. The next thing then is your concentration. After a while it get too much, I’ve seen doctors burst into tears, quit, walk out, everything. If you go into hospital and you are met by a doctor, a lot of those doctors have been working for 24 or 36 hours before they see you.

“Mistakes are being made all the time; it’s almost an accepted practice now. There is a culture that you are supposed to perk yourself up and get on with it. I have seen people make mistakes and I have made mistakes myself.”

A number of recent cases of NCHDs suffering from depression, including a spate of recent suicides, have prompted the doctors to take their recent action.

“It is inhumane and people [NCHD’s] have drawn a line under it because of recent events and we are not going to put up with it anymore. There have been a couple of suicides in recent times and I think really sparked the campaign,” he continued.

“Burn out is a huge thing. Some people take on all the hours as a challenge. Some of the senior doctors encourage this; they say it’s a right of passage and things like that. So there is a bit of peer pressure involved.

“I think this [protest] is a desperate, last attempt for a lot of people. If this doesn’t work I think we will see a lot of doctors packing up and leaving the country. No one wants to leave but a lot of people feel they don’t have a choice. Morale is at an all time low.

“A lot of people are moving to other areas of medicines, becoming GPs and things like that. People are getting burned out, a lot are getting depressed and some are even emigrating. People who have families hardly ever get to see their children. When they come home, they are exhausted. A lot of people are emigrating but nobody really wants to.”

THE service given by former Reserve Army members in Ennis will be recognised with a plaque at the town’s new peace memorial.

In a report to councillors earlier this month, town clerk Leonard Cleary said Ennis Town Council received a request from the local representatives of the former 22nd Battalion Reserve Army, Ennis.

The 22nd Infantry Battalion stationed at the Barrack in Ennis, be- side the Garda Station, served in the town from 1949/50 to 2005.

Mr Cleary states, “The Battalion have given a great service to the people of Ennis and indeed many people from Ennis were involved over the decades. Since 2005 a different Reserve Army structure exists in Ennis. As the Barrack building is assuming a new function, the local representatives of the Battalion would like to re-locate their Battalion’s wall plaque from the Barrack building wall to a new location.”

Mr Cleary said the representatives have requested the plaque be located in a quiet public space where they could occasionally lay a wreath.

He said the Battalion had links with the council through their involvement with the St Patrick’s Day ceremony.

Mr Cleary continued, “It is recommended that the request be facilitated by Ennis Town Council. It is proposed that the plaque be suitably incorporated into its own allocated space beside the proposed peace memorial site at Friar’s Walk. This is on the basis that it has already been agreed by Ennis Town Council that there may be other memorials installed at this site in due course. The appropriate next step would be to liaise with the local representatives of the Battalion and with the Irish Army to consider the requests further and any associated costs, which it is expected would be minimal.”

Speaking at the October meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said the Battalion were always held in high regard in Ennis.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the reserve army had given over 70 years of service to the people of Ennis.

Ennis is also to recognise the sacrifices of men and women who fought in conflicts such as the Vietnam War with a memorial in the Monastery Park area of the town.

Ennis Town Council will manage the project, which will be funded by the United States Vietnam Veterans Advocacy Group.

The sculpture will specifically commemorate men and women who served in Allied service in South East Asian wars between 1959 and 1975.

MEMBERS of Ennis Town Council have backed a call for the use of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to deal with the behaviour of what was described last week as a “small group of untouchables”.

ASBOs were introduced in Britain in 1998. They were designed to correct minor incidents that would not ordinarily warrant criminal prosecution.

In a motion tabled at the October meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the council should recommend a “planned pilot scheme of greater usage of Anti Social Beahviour Orders (ASBO) for the Ennis town centre area by the Gardai and Court Services”.

He said the orders could be implemented against criminal and public order offenders.

“Following a half year review, if the pilot is successful, the scheme would be extended to other areas to deal with scourge of this behaviour by a perceived small group of untouchables,” added Cllr Flynn.

Cllr Flynn told the meeting Ennis has a very low crime rate in comparison to towns like Killarney.

However he said the behaviour of a small group of people is putting the reputation of the town at risk.

“I think this would be the start of a campaign of no messing in Ennis,” he added.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said attempts to deal with anti-social behaviour had not been helped by repeated cuts to Garda budgets and the closure of stations around the county.

“My sympathy does go out to the gardaí. They are doing their very best,” he added.

Cllr Guilfoyle told the meeting there had been a number of disturbances in Ennis Courthouse over the past year.

He also spoke about an incident that occurred on the Kilrush Road in August when a man in his 20s was brutally assaulted while on his way home at night.

Chairman of the Ennis Joint Policing Committee (JPC) Cllr Paul O’Shea (Ind) said he would support the use of ASBOs in Ennis.

He said, “There is a lot of fear among the community because of this small group of untouchables.”

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) told the meeting the gardai are doing the best they can with limited resources. “I would urge anyone that has any kind of problem to ring the confidential line to the Garda,” he added.

In response to Cllr Flynn’s motion, town clerk Leonard Cleary said it would be referred to the Joint Policing Committee. “Ennis Town Council is working with the gardaí on an ongoing basis in relation to the specific current items raised in this motion,” added Mr Cleary.

A JUDGE has issued a stark warning that more lives will be lost to addiction if drug treatment services in Ireland continue to be under resourced.

Judge Gerard Keys was commenting following the death of Ennis man James Sherlock Jnr earlier this year.

The 24-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee was found unconscious by his brother near the green of the eighth hole of Ennis Golf Club in August. It is thought Mr Sherlock had spent a period of time squatting in the area.

Mr Sherlock, formerly of Childers Road, Ennis, was a heroin addict who lost both his legs as a result of complications arising from his addiction.

He lived rough for a while in an abandoned squat in Ennis and was awaiting sentence for setting fire to the Lakes Nursing Home in Killaloe on August 20, 2010. Judge Keys had adjourned sentencing for the purpose of ascertaining what help Mr Sherlock could get to deal with his drug addiction and what accommodation could be found for him.

“It is with a great degree of sadness that I read in the newspapers the circumstances of the death of James Sherlock,” Judge Keys said at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday.

“He was a troubled young man with huge problems and with little or no adequately-resourced facilities to assist him in dealing with his drug addiction and the medical complications which arose there from. In this court I said this man cannot be abandoned,” added Judge Keys.

He continued, “I am now compelled to say that until the problem of drug addiction in this country is tackled and a sufficient number of properly resourced facilities put in place by the State, there will be more deaths of this kind and our prison population will increase.

“I passionately believe that if a sufficient number of properly-resourced facilities for drug addiction were established it would radically reduce crime levels, reduce our prison population and save lives.”

He conveyed his sympathies to the Sherlock family.

At James Sherlock Jnr’s funeral in Ennis last August, parish priest Fr Tom O’Gorman also spoke of the dangers of drug addiction.

“Drugs led him [Jimmy] down the wrong path and the shackles that they hold on people can lead to death,” Fr O’Gorman told mourners.

A FACILITY for Kilrush, similar to Lee’s Road in Ennis, will be the “premier project” for Clare County Council this year.

The project planned for the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush is to include pitches, running tracks and astro turf facilities.

The project has been submitted for national sporting grants by Kilrush Town Council previously but with as yet no success.

The town council executive is confident that the project will be successful in securing grant funding this year and has also submitted it for consideration in a new national fund.

Town manager Anne Haugh explained that the county manager had agreed that the Kilrush project would be the primary project on a list seeking funding from the new national scheme – Sport Nation.

The new grant aid system is supported through the Public Bodies and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, with each department providing one third of the funding up to € 58,124. The remaining third needs to be raised from the local authority’s capital fund.

The council agreed that the first phase of the project to require funding should be the astro turf area.

The town council had previously agreed to set aside € 150,000 of money earmarked for special projects to the proposed Cooraclare Road Sports Development.

A lease for 25 years has also been signed for such the facility on the Cooraclare Road.

IT HAS finally been decided that the Kilrush Famine Memorial is to become part of the streetscape of Francis Street, but the town engineer will determine its exact location.

After much deliberation, Kilrush Town Council decided that the street where the 2013 National Famine Commemoration was held is to be the permanent home of the monument unveiled during the ceremony in May.

The local authority received just one response to a public consultation on the issues.

Groups and organisations involved with the commemoration had a number of suggestions however as to where in the town it should be located. Early suggestions that the Old Shanakyle Cemetery, where victims of the Great Irish Famine lay in a mass grave, would be the ideal location was ruled out.

Mayor of Kilrush Cllr Paul Moroney (Ind) said that the Kilrush and District Historical Society, the organisation that bid for the National Commemoration to be held in the heritage town, had indicated they would like the monument to be placed outside the town hall in the town square.

The mayor suggested relocating the dolphin sculpture in the square and placing the monument there.

At Thursday night’s meeting of the council, Cllr Marian McMahon Jones (FG) said that the dolphin could not be moved as it was part of a dolphin trail.

Town manager Ann Haugh explained that the two locations being considered were either side of the town hall or at two locations on Francis Street.

Cllr Mairead O’Brien (Ind) who was mayor during the commemoration told the meeting that the Famine Commemoration Committee agreed that Francis Street, outside Noel Ryan’s would be the preferred location.

“Ultimately we could put a bench there and a floral display and people could take time to sit at it,” she said.

As CCTV is proposed for that location, the council was unsure whether this would mean the monument may have to be placed elsewhere.

A location outside the Bank of Ireland on Francis Street was then proposed as another possible site.

The council voted to erect the monument on Francis Street and agreed that the town engineer would decide between the two proposed locations on that street.

THE hundred thousand welcomes the 30,000 plus crowd gave to the victorious Clare team when they arrived back in Ennis with the Liam McCarthy Cup, was worth an estimated € 1 million to businesses in one evening alone.

It would appear that the Clare fans heeded the words of Clare hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald when he told them to forget the recession for a while, during the official homecoming at Tim Smythe Park (Fairgreen) in Ennis.

According to the CEO of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, Rita McInerney, the Sunday night homecom- ing was hugely beneficial, as people from all over the county converged in Ennis.

A conservative estimate of the money spent on the evening is approximately € 1 million said the business people’s representative.

“People had to spend money on petrol to come to Ennis, more spent it on food and drink when they were here and there was all the jerseys, flags and bunting that was purchased,” said Ms McInerney.

She estimated spending at an average of € 30 per person.

“That includes people who spent € 5 for a coffee and a snack to those that spent € 150 and stayed out until 5 in the morning,” she explained.

The build up to the All Ireland and the replay was not as profitable however, as people saved for the trip to Croke Park, she explained.

“People had to budget for the All Ireland and couldn’t spend in the run up to the game, but it was worth it because we were in an All Ireland. The businesses were happy to take in on the chin. It was such a great honour to be in the All Ireland,” she said.

“Obviously there was going to be a pull back on spending because people don’t have money, but on that night they came out in support.”

She added that the media focus on the county as a result of the team’s success was also hugely beneficial to the county.

“You couldn’t buy publicity like that,” she said.

“And the Liam McCarthy Cup is going to be here for a year so there will be plenty more celebrations I am sure.”

THE Banner feel-good factor is spreading. Just days after the county hurlers gave everyone in Clare a reason to be cheerful, new results from the CSO have confirmed that the number of unemployed people in the county has reached a five-year low.

The number of people signing on the live register in Clare fell to its lowest level since February of 2009 last month.

In what is being seen as a big step forward for the county, this is the first time in almost five years that the number of people signing on dropped below the 9,000 mark.

September is traditionally a good month for the live register in Clare – with a large number of third level student returning to full time education and coming off the live register.

Between August and September of this year the number of people signing on dropped off dramatically from 9,613 to 8,983 – a drop of 6.5 per cent.

However, this drop is not just a seasonal drop as it also represents a year on year drop of 691 people – representing a drop of 7.1 per cent compared to 2012.

The drop in the number of people signing on was led by Ennis where the live register number dropped from 5, 528 in September of 2012 to 5,094 – a drop of 8 per cent.

While there is no concrete figures for job creation in Clare, it is understood that the tourism sector has had a good season to date, prompted in some way by the reduced VAT rate and the positive effects of the Gathering.

It is understood that the Government are likely to increase the VAT for the hospitality back up from its current two-year low of 9 per cent – a move which could threaten employment in the county’s tourism sector.

This news come hot on the heels of a survey from Hotels.com which reported that room prices in hotels were actually increasing.

These claims were strongly rejected by Lahinch hotelier and and president of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, who described it as “outrageous” and said that the survey used too few hotel room prices to be accurate.

THE search for a 42-year-old man who was washed into the sea off North Clare will resume this morning. Naval divers are due to resume their search for the Latvian national around 10am this morning, October 8, after bad weather brought an end to last nights search effort.

With more settled weather expected this morning, it is hoped that the mans’ body can be located close to Ballyreen, where he entered the water in Sunday evening.

The man had been fishing with a number of friends at a spot known as Fisherman’s Climb in the popular fishing location between Doolin and Fanore on Sunday evening when he was washed into the ocean by a freak wave. A friend raised the alarm and then attempted to swim out to reach the stranded man.

However, while the friend was swimming to rescue the man, the victim – who has not yet been named – was washed under the water. Despite an intensive search led by a number of rescue agencies, including the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard, the man has not been sighted since. The man’s friend, who dived into the water to save the 42-yearold man, was assisted by emergency services and treated on site for the effects of cold. “The search has been stood down for the night because of poor weather conditions and the hope is now that the divers to be able to enter the water tomorrow morning,” said Mattie Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard last night. “We are hopeful that the divers will be able to come up with something tomorrow. It is a very exposed spot and if something is not discovered soon it could be very difficult to locate.” It’s understood that man was not wearing a lifejacket and may have been dragged beneath the waves by his heavy clothing. The area has been the scene of a number of tragedies in recent years including the death of a two men in separate fishing accident in Ballyreen in 2009.

THE family of a Kilfenora man Brian McMahon, who tragically lost his life in California over the weekend, flew out to America yesterday to be with his wife and children.

Father of two Brian McMahon was killed in a car accident in the Californian city of San Rafael on Friday morning last. Mr McMahon, who is 46 years old and has been living in America for a number of years, was out walking close to his home just before 8am, local time, when the ac- cident took place.

The exact details of the accident are not yet clear but it appears that Mr McMahon was struck by a single vehicle on the street close to his home at 7.45am. Emergency first aid was given to Mr McMahon at the scene at he was rushed by ambulance to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.

“San Rafael police officers and San Rafael paramedics located an unconscious 46-year-old man lying in the roadway. Life saving measures were immediately initiated. The male sub- ject was transported to Kaiser Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” said a spokesperson from the local police department.

“The driver of the involved vehicle remained on scene and called 911 to report the collision. Numerous bystanders were interviewed at the scene.

“The driver fully cooperated with the investigation. At this time, it appears neither alcohol nor any other impairment was present or a factor in this collision. The involved vehicle was taken for a thorough inspection.”

Police are reportedly investigating the possibility that the driver may have been blinded by the bright morning sun and did not see see Mr McMahon out walking. Mr McMahon was home in Clare in August and was due to return with his sons for the All-Ireland hurling final but was unable to do so because of work.

Mr McMahon is survived by his Tipperary born wife and his his two children aged 13 and 11 years old. He is also survived by his father Murty McMahon, his American-based brother John and a number of siblings based in the North Clare area.