CARAVANS WHICH are pulling up in towns around the country offering cholesterol and other blood tests without even having access to running water are a potential health hazard and “could be infecting the whole place”, a Mayo GP has warned.
Dr Ken Egan, who is based in Ballindine, told delegates attending the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in Killarney yesterday that while some mobile testing units were from reputable organisations he had come across one service, which pulled up at least twice a year in Claremorris and nobody was sure who operated it.
“Who runs them is a good question . . . the caravan has a professional outlook, but nothing inside it other than some guy sitting at a table with a box. They have no water supply and no sterilisation equipment and are doing blood testing . . . they have to break the skin with a needle and take blood off with a stick and put it into a machine,” he said.
“They are a huge health hazard and they could be spreading disease and nobody is bothering about it . . . it’s a disgrace,” he added.
The caravan was charging €10 for the tests, but the testing should cost more if it was safe, he said.
He called for the regulation of such services, as well as the regulation of alternative and complementary medicine practices, in the interests of patient safety.
There had been at least one case in his area, he said, where a woman, who died after an asthmatic attack, had been advised to give up the medication she had been taking for her condition by a woman practising alternative medicine.
Dr Oliver Whyte, a GP in Westport, said his local paper had many advertisements for alternative treatments and people were spending a fortune on them, but a book he read recently suggested they were of no advantage other than having a placebo effect.
Recently he saw a beautician was describing herself as a skin specialist, he said, adding that it was time all these services were regulated.
Dublin based GP Dr Ray Walley added that he recently saw a patient who was offered chelation therapy for high cholesterol and there was no evidence whatsoever that it was effective in treating the condition.
Delegates unanimously supported a motion calling for the regulation of all those providing alternative treatments.
Meanwhile, the meeting was divided on a motion which suggested those attending emergency departments in a drunken state should have to pay for their treatment out of their wages or dole. The casting vote of the chairman however, saw the proposal defeated.
Separately the conference reiterated its opposition to the aptitude test introduced last year for those seeking entry to medical schools.
Dr Bernard Ruane, a GP in Tralee, questioned why if the test was worthwhile it hadn’t been applied to entrants to other courses such as dentistry and veterinary medicine.