Doctors warn over mobile clinics offering on-the-spot health checks
The problem of unregulated “caravans pulling into town” offering tests for cholesterol, diabetes and anaemia was raised yesterday by doctors attending the AGM of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in Killarney, Co Kerry.
During a debate calling for the regulation of alternative/complementary medicine, Dr Oliver Whyte said that he had read a book recently called Suckers, describing how people were spending fortunes on unproven alternative treatments, some of which put patients at risk.
“I have even seen beauticians now calling themselves skin specialists,” the Mayo-based GP said.
He was supported by Dr Ken Egan, who highlighted the case of an asthma patient who gave up her medication on the advice of an alternative practitioner only to die on her way to one of her appointments.
Dr Egan was particularly critical of the health check “caravans” that often used the Church notice board to advertise their service.
“These people are operating commercially, charging €10 for a test, and are definitely not approved or recognised by any medical body,” he said.
They were using needles and blood sticks and there was no evidence that this equipment was being properly cleaned.
“There is no supervision — they may be putting these blood sticks in water and then re-using them.
“The caravan has a professional look but if you went in there is nothing in it. There may be some lady sitting at a table with a box.”
Dr Egan said he was not including voluntary organisations like the Irish Heart Foundation or Croí in his criticisms.
He said he complained about the caravans to the Health Service Executive (HSE) but was told they were outside their control.
The problems facing stroke patients were also highlighted at the AGM.
Dr Cillian Twomey, consultant physician in geriatric medicine at Cork University Hospital (CUH), called on Health Minister Mary Harney to ensure that all hospitals receiving stroke patients have proper resources, including acute stroke unit care, round-the-clock clot-busting treatment and full multi-disciplinary stroke rehabilitation.
Dr Twomey said all hospitals open 24/7 admitted acute stroke patients but that “the extent to which organised stroke unit care is established in Ireland is very limited”.
In CUH, stroke patients went “wherever there is a bed”, even though “the evidence for placing them in a stroke care unit was overwhelming in terms of reducing morbidity and mortality”, he said.
Dr Twomey said it was estimated that up to 500 deaths from stroke could be prevented each year with the right treatment. As it stands, there are 10,000 new stroke patients per year in Ireland, and 30,000 at any one time, almost half of whom are weakened down one side, a third of whom have a disability, and a fifth of whom cannot walk. In addition, a third get clinically depressed.
