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EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
€340,000: The combined amount of money’s worth of cannabis seized by gardaí this week in separate raids in Leitrim and Kerry.
1,025: The number of new jobs to be created at the redeveloped Carlow Central Shopping Centre.
€88.5m: The amount of money won in this week’s Euromillions jackpot. The winning ticket was sold in Dublin.
€418,000: How much money the Government jet was sold to an American firm for. A decision which was justified this week by the Defence Department.
23: Here are the 23 towns where rent caps will be extended to from midnight.
€52 million: The amount of money made by Airbnb hosts in Dublin last year, according to a report commissioned by the company.
2: The number of gigs musician Ed Sheeran will play in the 3Arena in Dublin in April.
7,148: The number of people who stayed in emergency accommodation in Dublin last month.
19th: Ireland’s position in a ranking of least corrupt countries in the world.
9,584,400: The number of people who visited Ireland’s shores last year, according to the Central Statistics Office.
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As a respiratory consultant with a fellowship in advanced lung cancer diagnostics I am a very strong supporter of annual CT thorax Lung Cancer Screening for Ireland but i understand the current reason it has not been introduced to-date in Ireland is the fear of the medicolegal payouts it will cost the State in due course; currently the State Claims agency owes €4billion in medicolegal payouts; in healthcare economics terms thats 2 x National Children Hospitals – hopefully the State can find a way to resolve this and implement Lung Cancer Screening
@Oisin O’Connell: can you please explain how lung cancer screening will lead to an increase in claims and how the cost is higher when offset against catching cancers early, I assume less treatment is required and therefore lower costs. Or is it actually more costly on the heath service in terms of treatment versus palliative care. Or is it the fear of mistakes during screening. I’m a little confused by your comment.
@Rmaybe: No screening can ever detect 100% of cancers. Also, in diagnostics there will be an overlap between normal and abnormal features, so on retrospective review another reader may come to another conclusion. These types of “mistakes” tend to lead to very large payouts to patients whose cancer was missed, and make screening programs very expensive.
@Oisin O’Connell: if u had private health insurance I think u would stand a better chance of getting it done as a check up,I’m 52 I’m off the cigarettes 5 years but I’m still using the vape,now the dangers can be seen Oisin,if u have a medical card u will not be seen,I’m on the waiting list almost 18 months,to have a test done,my body stopped sweating about 3 years ago from a really bad virus I got,I might aswell be dead,because my skin is constantly hot,and starts burning as the day goes on,to the stage where it’s like your been burnt from the inside out,My own GP has contacted the place 4 times,but coz I’ve a medical card,but if u had private insurance,i could have been seen so much sooner,and not have 4 differnt autoimmunes now,money is everything now
@Kate Peters: Hi Kate, apologies if my question is inapproprate, but couldn’t you see the consultant privately? You will have to pay for the visit, but if your condition is serious they would find a way to get you “in” for public treatment. It will cost you 150-200 euro, which is a lot of money (and private insurance covers at most half of it anyway) but hopefully you won’t have to pay after that!
@Zmeevo Libe: once you enter the health service as a private patient you must remain as a private patient gor your treatment. There’s no hopping the queue over to the free public service. So if you pay for a private consultant and need further treatment it gets very expensive very quickly if you don’t have health insurance
@Oisin O’Connell: How much do you know about Pulmonary Fibrosis? do you know if its advanced that open heart surgery is probably a very bad idea? Because my father died last week despite the consultant in the Mater saying his lungs ‘arent great’ this was her bs way of telling me he had advanced pulmonary fibrosis. She casually mentioned what he had midway through a phone call after a consultation with my father that i realize now i should have been present for, as much of it went over dads head. He had open heart surgery in November and died exactly two months later, gasping for air on high flow oxygen because he refused to go on a ventilator. He spent the last two months of his life scared and suffering terribly. The fibrosis would have gotten him in the end, but why did they perform open heart for a heart valve replacement instead of doing keyhole, when they should have known he wouldnt survive long afterwards. Im so angry that this wasnt diagnosed sooner, he had regular checkups, until covid happened.
Some information on the signs and symptoms would be beneficial here. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/lung-cancer/symptoms
50,000 trucks in a convoy in Canada. Elon Musk supporting them. Largest convoy in the history of planet earth. Millions out on the streets supporting them. Not one mention on Irish MSM. This place is NOT journalism. Open your eyes.
@The Almighty: actually I read about it yesterday on irish MSM.
So it’s yesterday’s news. Its gone, you missed it. Goes to show that if you don’t see or hear of something happening it doesn’t mean that it didn’t.
@The Almighty: https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2022/0129/1276670-truckers-canada/
Ironic though that you insist on a story about freedom of choice being reported.
@The Almighty: 1. This article is about lung cancer 2. a truck convoy in Canada has little if no bearing on Ireland.
@The Almighty: That was covered yesterday. Plenty of other online Canadian links available if we want to brush up on our French, mind you.
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