| Boost for Eye health care hopes
The chances of people in Eye being allowed to take over their own community hospital were given a significant boost yesterday when Suffolk PCT announced it wants healthcare to remain on the site.In February the primary care trust announced that the few remaining beds at Hartismere Hospital would be phased out from this month and the Victorian building now deemed not fit for service would be put on the open market.Valued at about £4m, the site could attract the interest of big-money developers looking to build a new housing estate - much like on the site of the former Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.In February the PCT would only state that it was “too early to say" whether a healthcare consortium would automatically become preferred bidder, raising the prospect that the cash-strapped group, this week revealed to be £31m in debt, instead preferred to sell to the highest bidder.But yesterday the PCT said: “The old hospital will eventually be offered for sale and the site for redevelopment.
Woman returns home after ground-breaking eye surgery
A Hobart woman who was left blind and paralysed after an adverse reaction to antibiotics has arrived back in Tasmania after undergoing ground-breaking eye surgery in Singapore. Michelle Wylie was greeted at the Hobart airport yesterday by friends she had not seen for more that two years. In March 2005, Mrs Wylie became paralysed and lost her vision. She and her husband returned from Singapore on the weekend where surgeons attached an artificial lens to one of her teeth and implanted it in her eye. Barry Wylie says the remarkable operation worked. "Michelle can see probably the length of a bed at this stage and over time the eye will improve and she will get better," he said. Mrs Wylie can clearly remember having the bandages removed.
Surgery center changes behind the scenes
Nearly a year since Covenant HealthCare announced plans to change management of outpatient surgery at its Mackinaw Medical Center, the second floor now is operating as the Mackinaw Surgery Center. The center is a joint venture of Covenant, a group of 20 physician partners, and the Leawood, Kan.-based Nueterra Healthcare management company. The transition became official this month. Whitney Miller, marketing specialist with Nueterra, said it's had no effect on operations of the same-day surgery site. "Surgeries continue to be performed as usual, so patients wouldn't know the difference," she said. The second floor at 5400 Mackinaw in Saginaw Township includes four licensed operating rooms, two procedure rooms for surgeries that don't require anesthesia and two treatment rooms for removal of skin lesions.
Myopia a risk factor for globe perforation from periocular injection
Myopia may be a significant risk factor for accidental globe perforation during periocular injections, according to a retrospective study by a surgeon in India. Salil S. Gadkari, MD, reviewed records for 19 patients diagnosed with globe perforation referred to his center. The perforations were caused by retrobulbar injections in six cases (32%), by peribulbar injections in 10 cases (53%) and by subconjunctival injections in three cases (16%), according to the study. Dr. Gadkari found that the injections had been performed by anesthetists in six cases (32%) and by ophthalmologists in 13 (69%) cases. However, anesthetists identified the perforation in only one of the six cases (17%), while ophthalmologists identified the problem before surgery in nine of the 13 cases (69%).
Foreign travel for health care?
For a travel writer, there is no surer way to attract a barrage of hate mail than to suggest foreign travel for the purpose of obtaining medical or dental treatment. Immediately, dozens of U.S. doctors and dentists accuse you of putting people's lives at risk, since only U.S. doctors and dentists are able to safely treat us. And U.S. medical and dental treatments, as we all know, are the absolute best. If the United States had universal medical and dental insurance, and every American was able to afford treatment here at home, I would not be disposed to argue the matter. But more than 40 million Americans are without such insurance and are unable to afford many elective treatments here at home. The proposed remedy will, therefore, not go away. Outside the United States are medical facilities and a myriad of doctors and dentists willing to charge modest sums within the financial reach of nearly everyone.
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