Writer
John Dwyer
Professor John Dwyer is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UNSW and the founder of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance.
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Heading into trouble: Hazards of the Women’s World Cup
Much of the health reform urgings I have presented over the years have emphasised the importance of “prevention” and the paucity of attention it receives. Less than 1.2% of our health budget is spent on preventing health problems. OK, but what has this to do with the Soccer world Cup? Continue reading »
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No amount of money will fix the current health system
It has been obvious for many years that our health system needs a radical, evidence based, redesign if it is ever to meet the oft spoken goals of equality and cost-effectiveness, with a focus on prevention and timely availability of care based on need, not financial wellbeing. Continue reading »
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New obesity treatments offer hope, but can we afford them?
Worldwide obesity has tripled since 1975. WHO surveys tell us that more than 2 billion adults, 18 years and older are overweight and of these nearly 800 million are actually obese. 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in a 2020 survey and it is estimated that 400 million children Continue reading »
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Politics, not science, fuelling debate about the origin of COVID-19
Last week 4.8 million people contracted Covid-19 and 39,000 died as a result. The pandemic rages on around the world with, globally, cumulative cases of 675,565,574 and 6,873,798 deaths documented. Continue reading »
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The Medicare Review: how will its aspirations be achieved?
The Medicare Review contains welcome aspirations, but the instruments to achieve them are poorly delineated. Continue reading »
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“Sixty percent of all claims sent to Medicare for payment are fraudulent”!
Is $8 billion dollars a year being rorted from Medicare? This claim for almost universal fraudulent behaviour is a nonsense. The entire bill for Medicare funded GP services is only $12 billion. Continue reading »
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Right wing media outraged by Australia’s Covid 19 response
While there are demands from right wing commentators for a Royal Commission into Australia’s mishandling of the “essentially innocuous” SARS-Cov-2 virus, in reality Australians continue to die from infection while the distressing and prevalent morbidity associated with infection is becoming clearer and clearer. Continue reading »
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Our primary care system needs a philosophical and structural revolution (part two)
One of the unique disadvantages we must deal with as we try and integrate our delivery of health care is the division of responsibility for Hospital care and Primary Care between our State and Federal governments. The tension created, largely around money, makes the desired smooth integration of all health care needs ,in a patient Continue reading »
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Our primary care system needs a philosophical and structural revolution (part one)
It is totally appropriate to use the word ‘crisis’ when describing the current state of Primary Care in our country. Our ‘General Practitioners’ are increasingly giving voice to their frustration with the structures and strictures within which they are expected to deliver health care to Australians. Their disillusionment is infectious with recent studies reporting that Continue reading »
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The parlous state of consumer protection from health care fraud
Revelations of the incredible harm done to many Australians undergoing cosmetic surgery, performed by doctors lacking the skills to perform such operations, have been literally shocking. Surely regulations exist to insure the surgical competence of those offering such operations? Not so! Continue reading »
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Complacency, wishful thinking and misinformation are all contributing to our lack of success in containing the spread of COVID-19
I don’t read “The Australian” so I did not know until I received a barrage of emails from ‘anti-vaxxers’ lauding the wisdom therein, that on July 4 the paper had published an ‘Opinion’ piece criticising Australia’s response to the SARS virus. The article claimed that the incompetence involved warranted examination by a Royal Commission. Continue reading »
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Desperate Premiers call for radical redesign for health care funding
Australian hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to meet legitimate, often critical demands for in-patient care. The money to do so is not there and staff shortages are critical. A combination of professional dissatisfaction re the standard of care they are able to deliver, has many health professionals deserting our public hospital system. Add in Continue reading »
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Healthcare reform is not featuring in the current election
Australia’s public hospital system is having a hard time meeting the ever increasing demand for in-patient care. Continue reading »
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New variant plus our Covid-weariness frustrates pandemic control
It’s hardly surprising that a new variant has been detected in more than 55 countries, given only how little of poor countries’ populations have been vaccinated. Continue reading »
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Australia’s splintered healthcare system is plagued by inequity
The reforms required to improve health outcomes are not controversial and are proven overseas — what is lacking here is the courage to tackle the systemic problems. Continue reading »
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Patient beware: many a medical practitioner is naught but a dodgy doctor
The ease with which the protections of Australians from healthcare fraud can be breached can only be described as disgraceful, writes John Dwyer. Continue reading »
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Omicron is fuelled by our failure to mount a coordinated global response
The new Omicron coronavirus variant is a wakeup call on the need to fully vaccinate the world’s poorest nations, and our own children. Continue reading »
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A house divided against itself cannot tame the pandemic
St Matthew tells us that Jesus was at pains to teach his disciples that, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. The truism comes to mind as one looks in vain for the United States of Australia, an entity essential for our taming of the Covid pandemic. Continue reading »
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Premier Berejiklian, please stop thinking about easing of restrictions after “6 million jabs”
There have been many mistakes in many countries hindering efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. None has been more counterproductive than the premature easing of public health containment initiatives. Time and time again this has breathed new life into infections by the SARS-Cov-2 virus. This is especially so when dealing with the “Delta” variant. Continue reading »
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Not good enough, Premier Berejiklian
The NSW outbreak of delta infections is worse after six weeks of lockdown. As I am sure is true for many readers, I am frustrated today by the obvious loopholes in our current “lockdown”. Continue reading »
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Poor leadership, irresponsible media and a clever virus
Despite this being the most scientific of all ages, capable of producing highly effective vaccines a year after the SARS-COV-2 virus was identified ( Russian scientists actually achieved this in six months), poor leadership, ignorance, stubbornness and irresponsible media, (broadcast and social), are making this pandemic much worse than it needs to be. Continue reading »
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The NSW ‘lockdown’ that isn’t while putting business before people.
A ‘lockdown’ strategy that does not involve lockdown, a vaccine distribution policy that is dangerously inconsistent and covid testing facilities that cannot meet the demand generated by public health orders, are but some of the problems responsible for the continuing explosion of COVID-19 cases in Sydney Continue reading »
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 2
Controversy characterises the current, somewhat heated, discussions about how to use the vaccines available to us. While we hope to eventually employ at least four effective vaccines at the moment our choice is limited to one of two, the AstraZenica vaccine which we can manufacture here and the Pfizer vaccine which we need to import. Continue reading »
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 1
Who would have thought that a well educated and scientifically sophisticated nation like ours would find itself dead last among OECD countries when the percentages of citizens fully vaccinated in each country are examined. Continue reading »
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The hunt for man-made coronavirus is counter productive
We are recently informed by the Wall Street Journal, quoting an unidentified source, that three Chinese scientists who were working in the Wuhan Virus Laboratory became ill with a Covid like illness in November of 2019. Ah Ha! Surely they must have been working with the responsible virus in the laboratory, got themselves infected and Continue reading »
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The second year of the pandemic is even more deadly. Australians in India are being abandoned.
If we clever humans can put a rover on Mars we can deliver AZ vaccine to the Australian High Commission in Delhi! Continue reading »
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A moral responsibility to get Australian’s home
Almost 40,000 Australians are trapped abroad because of the Covid-19 epidemic. Many have been trying to return for more than a year. Many in countries with raging epidemics, such as India and Brazil are in real danger of personal infection. Many new viral ‘variants’ are more infectious and can cause serious disease in younger populations Continue reading »
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Explaining the AstraZeneca blood clots: what are our risks and how do we proceed?
Australian governments are advising people under the age of 50 not to pursue vaccination with the now locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine. Given Australia’s control over community transmission, any risk posed by the AZ vaccine is unacceptable, particularly, for not at-risk populations. Continue reading »
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The unfolding Covid disaster in PNG
Helping New Guinea with its disastrous Covid outbreak is not pure altruism on our part. The unbridled, indeed raging pandemic, known to have infected 100,000 already and likely to have infected a million more within a week or so, provides a perfect ‘incubator’ for wild type more infectious variants of the Covid to develop. We Continue reading »
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Vaccine misinformation on social media is out of control, but we should expect better from the mainstream media
I am surely not alone in being angry that The Australian would accept Clive Palmer’s money and let him publish dangerous, inaccurate claims about our Covid vaccination program. Continue reading »
