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NEWS September 2010: Just to let you all know that the Secretary is Therina O'Mahony who can be contacted at O'Mahony.Therina@sivuh.ie and she is doing a great job organising meetings - last meeting held Monday 30th August in Temple Street. Other big news is the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening is going to be funded from 2010- with hospitals in Cork and Wexford starting initially at the end of this year,and a plan to roll out to other areas in due course, where waiting lists have been brought to a manageable level. Finally there may be some funding for desperately needed diagnostic staff, although we should assume this may mean staff reductions for other services or areas. Finally Ireland is moving into the 21st Century in this respect. Watch this space!!
We hear all the new offspring from Temple Street, Beaumont and Crumlin are flying along ..now it is time for cats - a Maltese EFAS SECRETARY CAT studying the Oticon animals book, and an Irish tabby ex-EFAS secretary cat examining ISA documents closely, On the left a Grey haired beauty learning to read - this cat belongs to Elania PAce Balzan, EFAS Secretary.. who is looking forward to the next meeting in Warsaw, Poland in 2011. No more wars and lets see plenty of Irish folk showing an interest. see www.efas.org for details....
On the right, Pepe our deputy ISA Secretary supervising important documents..
The next Annual Conference is likely to be DUBLIN on Friday 5th November as not enough people felt able to pay up in advance to make the intended venue viable. Dublin should be easier for transport and possibly allow us to let you fend for yourselves for the day too. Some excellent speakers are planned as Therina had already said in recent e-mail - including Prof. Bamford re. UNHS and Prof. David Kemp.
€70 was an earlybird price but seemingly time or money could not be found. I suppose maybe the Galway days have been good meeting opportunities?
We will again have slots available for if you wish to present local projects/research, so let us know.
The 2 CAPD courses with Professor J.Hall (only for HSE staff as it is kindly being sponsored by them) and Professor Terri Bellis were both excellent.... although perhaps they emphasised the differerences more than the similarities in assessment terms although all seem to feel that audiologists must do assessment because of our facilities (rather than our expertise?) . Now we just need extra time as the requests start flooding in...
AUDIOLOGY REVIEW GROUP- Submissions are now officially closed
NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY 21ST JUNE largely focused on the review group and also the upcoming
conference - more anon.
Jonathan Parsons and Jim Collins were excellent guest speakers at the last conference, who stimulated further thinking about professional development JP Cork 2009.ppt and influencing services. Lean management got a good airing with Jim's presentation Lean Healthcare presentation.ppt. And our own members contributed well this year with local projects and innovations (see further down page for those links. Well done all!
RETIREMENT: Dr. Patricia Murphy retired from her Head of Audiology post at North Great George's Street (Picture below right). We wish her all the best and will miss her hardworking and thoughtful approach to her work. Dublin's paediatric hearing aid users have a very spartan service in 2010. Leaders where are you??
COMMITTEE NEWS: Deepak Kumar became the new Treasurer in place of Nicolaas and Therina took over as Secretary from Jennifer. Jean remains on as Chairperson to oversee the transition to a Profesional Body which is with the solicitor at the moment. HSE Community Hearing Services and Hospital services remain very small and underfunded by international standards and hopes of National UNHS seem to have faded completely with the recession and cutbacks.
Please follow the link above to see how Martin's excellent work is starting to make waves in Health... - we need to publicise our problems and recognise the complete understaffing and isolation which afflicts so many of us in our working life and the only way to do that is collect accurate statistics...
Middle Ear course ran in December in Stewart's Hospital Palmerstown over 2 days by the regular Guymark team for 37 people! with thanks to HSE
Vestibular Rehabilitation from 2008Vestibular Rehabilitation ppt.
Also the presentations from this year and last year by Martin Cromb on the Current State of Audiology Services in this country. Audiology Services in ROI.ppt from 2008 and now new to the website Martins ISA presentation 2009.ppt.
A unique Community Services Ear Care project running in Wexford, derived from the Rotherham NHS model of Ear Care. This is Audiology-led change with a real patient focus. Projectsummary9703.ppt Why not print off the Ear Wax leaflet for use in YOUR departments (we don't mind you changing the location to suit!) WAXleaflet0509Audiology.doc or look at the NHS document on Audiology service development. www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyandGuidance/DH_076884
And tell every audiologist you know about this!
CUEs can be claimed for ISA/BSA/BAA/ISHAA/BSHAA/IMO and EFAS/AAA etc... meetings with suitable evidence of content or where similar schemes are allocating points per hour. So start collecting!
HSE are currently sponsoring 4 Irish students to attend B.Sc. Audiology courses in the UK but there are no plans to expand that at present due to the current economic climate unfortunately, Can your dept take on placement students? If so, let Jean Hegarty know... The year would need to be divided between diagnostic and rehabilitation.
JOBS: Interesting that Audiology is not listed as an 'exempted post' despite the clear dearth of Audiologists and severe lack of services in a number of areas. On the positive side, can over-50s can apply for the early retirement scheme.... what are your views?
There are, however, posts available in Northern Ireland in Audiology. (and indeed worldwide), and a quick Google will show you some of the opportunities available. Anyone interested in finding out more Northern Ireland can contact Colleen Butler at: cbutler@bbt.co.uk , Beresford Blake Thomas Clarence Chambers, 18 Donegall Square East Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland BT1 5HE Tel: +44 (0) 2890261670.
Contact the Website for your views to be aired at: theresapitt@eircom.net CONFERENCES - 5th November Write or send pictures to either Theresa Pitt or Ciaran Clifford. Also, visit the LINKS page for some interesting articles on ENT library links which many of us could use.
Interesting Articles for members: jparsons2007.pdf, BAA Audiology Last Updated : 3rd july 2010