Health
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The PBS is under fire from US drug giants. There’s not much they can do
The drug companies have bought both American political parties. They have not bought Australia. Continue reading »
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Zionism, anti-Zionism, and the role of psychological coping strategies
As both the actively enabled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the sanctioning of those who protest it continue, the associated psychological challenges likewise continue unabated. It is not only the international `rules-based’ order which is subverted (with all the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions that entails). When any pretence to a moral order Continue reading »
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Environment: Building nuclear involves killing more people
Building nuclear power plants requires keeping air-polluting coal power going for an extra 25 years and killing 3000-10,000 Australians. Which milk alternatives will reduce your environmental footprint? Australia’s Carbon Credit Units trade for less than a tenth of the social cost of carbon. US Environmental Protection Agency abandons the environment. Continue reading »
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When patients are harmed in hospital, issues aren’t always fixed to avoid it happening again
Recently, the media has reported several cases of serious “adverse events”, where babies, children and an adult experienced harm and ultimately died while receiving care in separate Australian hospitals. Continue reading »
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Dutton has little faith in Medicare. Like Trump, he prefers culture wars
Peter Dutton does not really believe in Medicare. He is more interested in Trump-type culture wars than the health of Australians. Continue reading »
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An election looms, but there’s no sign of the political boldness needed to fix our healthcare system
The inequity and inefficiencies in our current health programs and the resulting need for change, have been obvious for decades. Finding the necessary political boldness to change this situation has eluded us to date. I acknowledge that there have been a number of governments and ministers who wanted to improve the healthcare of Australians and Continue reading »
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Medicare skullduggery
Prime Minister Albanese has announced an $8.5 billion boost for Medicare to make bulk-billing available to all adults, not just concession card holders. Within hours, the Leader of the Opposition matched Labor’s bid. Both leaders are acutely aware that health care affordability is a critical issue for the electorate. In his commentary on P&I March Continue reading »
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Bulk-billing incentives should be the start of something bigger
The federal government’s new $8.5 billion investment in general practice is a powerful painkiller. It will bring welcome relief to patients facing GP fees, and to a primary care system that’s under pressure. But it won’t cure the system’s underlying problems. Continue reading »
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To make Medicare healthy again, our leaders must treat these worrying symptoms
I don’t know if you noticed, but the federal election campaign began on Sunday. The date of the election has yet to be announced – it may be mid-April or mid-May – but hostilities have begun. And they began with an issue that’s been big in election campaigns for 50 years: Medicare. Continue reading »
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The Grandmother Effect, an evolutionary lesson for housing policy
Evolution works by conserving traits that carry value for the species, but more often it is perceived as “survival of the fittest” or in “social darwinism”. These are literary licences: scientifically, they are close to misinformation. A look at the Grandmother Effect will show you why. Continue reading »
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Stopping the neoliberal bullies dividing up the spoils at our expense
American TV and movie comic Groucho Marx (no relation to Karl) had a gift for one liners, such as: “Honesty and fair dealing, that’s what people want. If we can fake that we can make a million!” Continue reading »
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Prevention – putting health into healthcare
Health outcomes are about more than access to healthcare services: they are highly dependent on the social and economic determinants of health. Despite lip service to the importance of these factors and preventive health actions, the Australian healthcare system is relentlessly focused on treating sick people, with subsequent economic and social costs incurred by governments, Continue reading »
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Neoliberal learning: Horses for courses and donkeys in the paddock
This series is built on the firm belief in “a paradigm of care” being the answer to the cancer of neoliberal economic rationalism, and its bedfellows bullying managerialism, monetarism and compliance surveillance. But following the maxim that “no one likes a whinger”, I am also advocating the timeless message from Swiss American psychiatrist and expert Continue reading »
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X-raying the architecture of empire and removing some tumours
Anyone having to deal with the health and human services industries knows how rigidly they are controlled by the Medical Model and its sister act, Compliance Surveillance. What goes unnoticed in this mechanically e-captive state of affairs is that the dominant model of assessing and accrediting the quality of care is only one approach to Continue reading »
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Trump’s decision to withdraw American support for WHO is a huge mistake
It only took a week for Donald Trump to have America looking like Belarus as a dictator, helped by totally subservient politicians, put governing in the hands of unqualified, unintelligent loyalists. As one commentator asked this week “When did brains go out of fashion!” Continue reading »
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Working for Whitlam
Future MP Race Mathews had an insider’s view of policy development — not least health policy — in the office of the leader of the opposition. Continue reading »
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Should we believe a Mediscare campaign?
For the last two and a half years the opposition under Peter Dutton’s leadership has avoided virtually any concrete policy commitments in the health area. What happened last time the Coalition won government, when Dutton became health minister? Continue reading »
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The great mental health experiment … and why it went so wrong
Half a century ago, governments around the world ditched their old psychiatric hospitals for something they said would work better. It didn’t. Continue reading »
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Is there much life after age 80?
More people live longer as life expectancies grow over the decades. For example, in 1900, the worldwide average life expectancy (defined as the average number of years remaining) was 32 years. By 2024, it is now 73.3 years. A commonly-asked question is how much life is left for those of us aged 80 and above? Continue reading »
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Another wrongful conviction? UK nurse Lucy Letby may be a scapegoat for an under-funded NHS
In August 2023, nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six babies in the neonatal unit of a UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The Australian media has reported on the current instalment of the saga (viz. a judicial inquiry into conditions at the hospital where Letby Continue reading »
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Addressing misdiagnoses and gaps in Australia’s COVID-19 inquiry
The national report on Australia’s COVID response is long, at 877 pages (depending upon the format), with 4,647 footnotes. But long is not synonymous with comprehensive, and there are significant gaps in the report’s analysis and conclusions. Continue reading »
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They destroyed what was inside us: The children of Gaza
From the day the war began, 15-year old Ghazal’s life was irreversibly changed. “They destroyed what was inside us,” she said. Her story is a window into the larger tragedy of how war has devastated children, especially those with disabilities. Continue reading »
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‘No appeal from the grave’ Phillip Hughes, workplace deaths and getting the balance right
The death of cricketer Phillip Hughes ten years ago to-day (November 27) was one of several hundred workplace fatalities in 2014. Continue reading »
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COVID 19 Response Inquiry Report: A comprehensive review despite its limited terms of reference
My recent review of the book, Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism, by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden (H&H) highlighted its ‘convincing, frank and honest account’ in just over 200 pages, and encouraged the Health Department in particular to listen to its lessons. The official COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report by Robyn Kruk, Catherine Bennett and Angela Jackson ( Continue reading »
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Health Department: Listen to these lessons from our COVID 19 experience
A review of Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden, Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race, UNSW Press Continue reading »
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Health and Human Security: a sense of control over one’s life
It is time to think more broadly about security than the narrow military concept about which there is endless debate. Continue reading »
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Putting the mouth back into Medicare
How would it be to walk into a general practice with a toothache and be triaged to see the oral health therapist, who assesses and then develops an oral health care plan? They are then qualified to provide dental treatment but may also involve a GP or dentist across the corridor for further assessment. It Continue reading »
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Trump victory increases hazards for climate and global health
The well documented and steadily increasing health problems globally, directly associated with climate change, have been discussed with appropriate alarm by many expert contributors to P & I. Continue reading »
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Reform starts here: APA welcomes the final report of the scope of practice review and its potential to transform primary care
The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) welcomes the final report of the Scope of Practice Review, Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce, which outlines robust solutions to overcoming barriers limiting high-value care across settings. Continue reading »
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Conflicts of interest and the subconscious mind
In recent days, our media have covered two “scandals” involving allegations against public figures of failing to adequately address identifiable conflicts of interest. Continue reading »
