Monthly Archives: April 2011

Restricting access to new medicines: beyond the outrage

April 29, 2011 – 6:36 pm

Here are Minister Nicola Roxon’s speech notes to a round-table meeting in Melbourne this morning where various groups expressed their upset about the Government’s changes to the process of listing medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). As you’ve no doubt heard, the Government has also deferred listing of several medicines that had been recommended [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (8)

An update on health and medical news at The Conversation

April 29, 2011 – 3:57 pm

As mentioned recently, Croakey will carry regular updates of the health and medical articles at The Conversation. Reema Rattan and Fron Jackson-Webb write: Here’s a taste of what The Conversation’s health and medical experts have said over the past two weeks: • The road to misunderstanding your health is paved with numbers By Jens Zinn, [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in child health, evidence-based issues, health and medical research, health reform, health workforce, infectious diseases, mental health, The Conversation, Uncategorized, vaccines | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Surgery waiting times are not a useful indicator of hospital performance

April 29, 2011 – 1:52 pm

The performance of hospitals is again in the news, thanks to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s release today of Australian Hospital Statistics 2009-2010. You can download the full report here, and the Institute’s own summary is reproduced at the bottom of this post. It seems, on an admittedly quick reading, that the bulk [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in Australian Medical Association, health financing and costs, Hospitals, primary health care, quality and safety of health care, surgery, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (9)

A tick for Opposition’s plans to improve employment services for people with mental illness

April 22, 2011 – 11:09 pm

With mental health in the news, thanks in part to Tony Abbott’s recent funding promises, below is a Q and A piece with Professor John Mendoza, first published by The Conversation on April 21. Why do so many mentally ill Australians struggle to maintain employment? This is a critical policy issue for all Australian governments [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in health reform, mental health, social determinants of health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

Challenging accepted wisdoms about young peoples’ health and wellbeing

April 22, 2011 – 1:19 am

Mental health is in the political limelight in the lead-up to the federal budget, with the Government and Opposition both promising support for mental health services. The researcher and writer Richard Eckersley argues that we need to develop a much broader understanding of mental health and wellbeing in young people. In particular, he challenges the [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in child health, environmental health, global health, Health inequalities, mental health, public health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Unexpected benefits of rural medical training

April 15, 2011 – 6:55 am

At the recent national rural health conference in Perth, Professor Max Kamien, Emeritus Professor of General Practice at the University of Western Australia, warned that rural clinical schools would eventually lose funding if they can’t prove that a significant proportion of graduates have ended up working in rural, remote or Indigenous health (you can watch [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in health and medical research, Indigenous health, rural and remote health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , , | Comments (8)

Smoking out The Australian

April 14, 2011 – 11:56 am

The Australian newspaper has recently run a series of articles attacking the Federal Government’s cigarette packaging reforms, including one quoting Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall’s reservations about the measures. Dr Ross MacKenzie, Lecturer in Health Studies at Macquarie University, says we shouldn’t lose sight of the evidence suggesting the packaging will prove to be a [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in conflicts of interest, Media-related issues, public health, tobacco control | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

How the sale of Australian police guns threatens public health in the USA

April 14, 2011 – 8:38 am

Should Australia be contributing to the gun toll in the USA? It’s a timely question for the Defence Export Control Office in the Department of Defence in Canberra, says Adjunct Associate Professor Philip Alpers, of GunPolicy.org at the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney. Philip Alpers writes: If Canberra follows precedent, around 10,000 [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in gun control, public health | Tagged , | Comments (21)

An update on health and medical news at The Conversation

April 14, 2011 – 8:00 am

As noted recently at Croakey, a new online analysis and commentary site called The Conversation offers plenty of brain-fodder for those with an interest in health and medical matters. Given that Croakey readers are likely to be interested in many of The Conversation’s articles, I’m delighted that the new venture has agreed to provide us [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in child health, childbirth and maternity services, complementary medicines, conflicts of interest, Food, gambling, health and medical research, Hospitals, Media-related issues, NHMRC, physical activity, public health, The Conversation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Australia needs physician assistants. So why aren’t we getting them?

April 12, 2011 – 11:50 pm

As you may have noticed, Croakey has recently been running a series of articles examining the potential of physician assistants to improve access to health care, particularly in rural and remote areas. These articles have been positive about the role of PAs. But we know that a number of groups are on the record opposing [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in Australian Medical Association, health reform, health workforce, nurses and nursing, rural and remote health | Tagged , , , | Comments (9)