Category Archives: Australian Medical Association

Beyond band-aids: Medicare needs structural reform

January 19, 2012 – 3:46 pm

The crew at The Medical Journal of Australia must be feeling rather pleased this week by the publicity and debate generated via this week’s edition, particularly the articles on Medicare by Dr Tony Webber and on corporatisation of medicine by Ray Moynihan. Below is some wider commentary, reproduced from The Conversation, with articles from: • [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in dental care, general practice, health reform, health regulation, health workforce, Journal articles, primary health care, The Conversation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Why Mary, Kylie and I may prefer to be known as Doctor….

November 22, 2011 – 11:14 am

As Croakey recalls (perhaps hazily), it was the former Federal Health Minister Dr Neal Blewett who started a debate some years ago about who are the real doctors in health. His suggestion, as I remember, was that “real doctors” have doctorates. More recently, The Power Index (a sister publication of Crikey) ran an article querying [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in cancer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Nothing complementary about Pharmacy Guild’s corporate deal

September 27, 2011 – 9:45 pm

The recent deal between the Pharmacy Guild and complementary medicine manufacturer Blackmores has raised the ire of both doctors and consumer groups. The Pharmacy Guild has signed a deal with Blackmores to include an automatic prompt for pharmacists dispensing specific medications to suggest that customers also purchase a particular Blackmore’s product targeting their condition. For [...]

By Jennifer Doggett | Also posted in complementary medicines, conflicts of interest, consumer health information, evidence-based issues, health & medical marketing, health ethics, pharmacy | Comments (3)

THE ROLE OF DOCTORS* IN HEALTH SERVICES PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT:ALTRUISM, EXPERTISE AND LACK OF ENGAGEMENT AS PERCEPTUAL DISORDERS

September 26, 2011 – 3:04 pm

The following comes from Enrico Brik an anonymous self-employed consultant and sometime writer and blogger who has worked for over a decade in various roles in health services policy and planning. “The name and pretence of virtue is as to self-interest as are real vices.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld On 20 July 2011 Dr Steve [...]

By Jennifer Doggett | Also posted in health and medical education, health workforce, Hospitals | Comments (10)

It’s time to refocus health debate on the issues that really matter

August 26, 2011 – 2:44 am

During the last four years of health reform debate, how many mainstream media articles did you see about the “social determinants of health”? Admittedly, no headline writer in their right minds would use such jargon but even so, we hear very little in mainstream debate about the powerful influence of social, economic, environmental and cultural [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in disabilities, health reform, Indigenous health, Media-related issues, mental health, poverty, prevention, primary health care, public health, rural and remote health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

A swag of recommended reading on health and medical news

May 13, 2011 – 7:17 pm

Below are some links to recommended reading. They cover everything from the challenged role of doctors, and the federal health budget, to inequality, AMA chest-beating, health policy – and the NT Intervention, the NBN and remote Indigenous health… *** Questioning the role of doctors The Drum and The Conversation have embarked on an interesting collaboration [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in alcohol, allied health care, dental care, e-health, emergency departments and care, Federal Budget 2011, general practice, health financing and costs, Health inequalities, health reform, health workforce, Indigenous health, Journal articles, Media-related issues, mental health, nurses and nursing, rural and remote health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Your guide to budget health coverage @ Croakey

May 12, 2011 – 1:19 pm

There has been a veritable deluge of budget coverage at Croakey in recent days. To help readers negotiate it all, here is a summary. The stories are grouped under the headings of mental health, Indigenous health, public health, general reaction, and cancer.

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in cancer, dental care, e-health, Federal Budget 2011, Health inequalities, health reform, Indigenous health, Medicare Locals, mental health, prevention, primary health care, public health, rural and remote health, social determinants of health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

Some context to budget’s mental health announcements

May 11, 2011 – 7:46 pm

Mental health is a particularly fraught area of public policy (as you may have noticed from recent Crikey/Croakey articles on the budget announcements). You could write a book about all the reasons for this, including the rivalries within and between the various professional groups, the stigma, the history, the difficulty of achieving that mythical “whole [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Federal Budget 2011, general practice, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (3)

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 | Also posted in health financing and costs, Hospitals, primary health care, quality and safety of health care, surgery, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (9)

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 | Also posted in health reform, health workforce, nurses and nursing, rural and remote health | Tagged , , , | Comments (9)