Health
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End the private hospital blame game by exposing the cost of care
The federal Department of Health will soon finish a “health check” of private hospital finances. Warnings of an emerging crisis sparked the review, with private hospital closures, claims that more hospitals are on the brink of collapse, and high-profile disputes between private hospital companies and health insurers. Continue reading »
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Environment: The climate crisis is a health crisis
Climate change will soon be causing an additional 250,000 deaths per year worldwide – children are at particular risk. Only 4% of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies actually reduced emissions. Continue reading »
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Review: Peter Gibilisco: Rocking the Boat – Significantly Essays from a wheelchair promoting due respect for all
I was profoundly amazed the moment I walked into the room back in 2018 where I was to have an interview with one of Peter’s support workers. Continue reading »
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Israeli physicians have reminded us that the care and protection of Gaza’s children is a human obligation — will we heed their call?
The organisation Physicians for Human Rights Israel issued an urgent global appeal on 17 June on behalf of the children of Gaza, demanding “immediate and decisive action from the international community to prevent further loss of life and to address the dire and immediate needs of Gaza’s most vulnerable population”. Continue reading »
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Could mpox become established in the Indo-Pacific?
While the Indo-Pacific has been one of the regions least affected by mpox in the past, that could change if the virus spreads unchecked. Continue reading »
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A call to civil society: it’s time to reframe media policy
The health implications of media policy are wide-ranging but not usually front of mind in national debate, whether for governments, communities or even the health sector. Continue reading »
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Compliance is killing caring
We need to cut Mandatory Accreditation Reporting down to a quarter, and start delegating Trust to care providers, so they can get back to their Core Business. Only then will Aged & Disability Care, Mental Health, NDIS, and Community Health be able to achieve Person-Centred & Community-Building Care. Continue reading »
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The global collapse of parenting and the rise of the device
Over ten years ago, I wrote an article for the Guardian that argued it was time to slay a sacred cow: that the internet is a force for good. Many advised me against writing it, saying it would be read as the views of a laggard, but it became one of the most-read articles published Continue reading »
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US military admits ‘missteps’ for anti-vax propaganda
US operations exploiting foreign vaccine programmes have time and again caused untold damage to the public health of countries targeted. Continue reading »
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Starmer may fix the NHS, but wholesale change is needed in our Western societies for better health
The glories of modern medicine are abundant: diseases once considered incurable are now within therapeutic range. Recently a new mechanical heart, developed by an Australian and weighing a mere half kilo or so, was successfully installed in a patient in the US. While its long-term effectiveness awaits proof, it has been hailed as a turning Continue reading »
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Israel’s border closures contribute to polio outbreak in Gaza
The ICRC warn of new disastrous health situation looming for the embattled residents of Gaza as Israel keeps the borders closed to urgently needed polo and other vaccines. Continue reading »
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When children’s wellbeing becomes a political football, it’s time to change the game
Governments and politicians should be investing in community initiatives and addressing the social determinants of crime, and health, instead of focusing on “tough on crime” policies, according to two members of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy. Continue reading »
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Health leaders call for University of Melbourne to drop disciplinary action against students
In an open letter, health leaders have urged the University of Melbourne to drop disciplinary action against 21 students involved in activism for Gaza. Continue reading »
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UNRWA must not be criminalised by the Israeli Parliament
The conflict in Gaza has created both a humanitarian crisis and a public health emergency. Both are still worsening. Yet despite this, Israel is moving to declare UNRWA (United Nations Relief Work Agency) a terrorist organisation. This would massively reduce the ability of UNRWA to deliver (already totally inadequate) food, health care and shelter to Continue reading »
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Israel legislatively and militarily seeks to destroy UNRWA
As the Israeli military obliterates Gaza, massacres refugees living in tents in so called “safe zones”, slaughters 38,000 people including at least 16,000 of these children, its government works to “finish off” UNRWA. Continue reading »
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The time-bomb under every state budget
Australia’s public hospitals cost too much and achieve too little. Soaring costs threaten to drown state finances while abandoning patients. Continue reading »
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Private hospitals seeking more government subsidies
Instead of churning more taxpayer money through Private Health Insurance funds to private hospitals, the Commonwealth Government should establish a Hospital Benefits Fund (HBF), similar to the Medical Benefits Fund (MBF), with benefits going directly to patients for payments to a hospital of their choice. Continue reading »
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America’s anti-China psyop programs a 24/7 menace to the Philippines
Major Western news outlets are currently reporting how the Pentagon ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign in order to undermine China’s life-saving COVID vaccination programme in the Philippines – and beyond – from the spring of 2020 to mid-2021. Continue reading »
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Environment: Pacific politician calls out Australia’s climate duplicity
The temperature is rising and the world is getting increasingly dangerous, even the rich bits. Former Tuvalu PM slams Australia’s climate policies. Rights of and around rivers. Continue reading »
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Rebuilding the NDIS
660 000 Australians are participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and 400 000 work in NDIS-related jobs. Our country needs the NDIS, but it’s expanded too quickly in recent years, as state-based services have withered on the vine. 11% of five- to seven-year-old Australian boys, and 5% of five- to seven-year-old girls, are now Continue reading »
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Time to change the law
One of my closest friends was recently diagnosed with early stages of dementia. She is 80 years old and believed that the problems she experienced with her memory, were due to normal age-related forgetfulness. She has a science background, and after receiving her diagnosis she started to research the topic in great detail. She read Continue reading »
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Environment: When will politicians take climate change seriously?
Both the WHO and UN may be starting to take seriously the effects of climate change on health. A global plan to save 1,000 freshwater fish from extinction. Covid reverses life expectancy at birth. Continue reading »
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“Forever Learning”: the Hoc Mai medical exchange program, 1998-2024
During the 1990’s Associate Professor Phillip Yuile of Sydney University visited Vietnam many times, helping hospitals to establish Radiotherapy there. In 1998 he met with Professor Ton That Bach the Dean of Hanoi Medical University (HMU) who subsequently invited me to visit Hanoi with a view to establishing a connection with postgraduate medical education in Australia, specifically Sydney Medical Continue reading »
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Attack on Rafah ‘safe zone’ is abhorrent
The Israeli military has repeatedly bombed a designated civilian ‘safe zone’ in Rafah, injuring and mutilating many people and causing a rising number of deaths. Medical response capacity, after many months of targeted attacks on healthcare in Gaza, is severely limited; there is one functioning hospital in Rafah. Injured survivors of the attack may only Continue reading »
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Israel massacres children, which the Western Press says is fine
Israel has not only completely disregarded the orders of the International Court of Justice to cease its assault on Rafah as we expected it to do, but has actually ramped up its ruthlessness as though trying to make a point. There were reportedly more than 60 Israeli airstrikes on the southernmost city in the Gaza Continue reading »
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Did a US funded biotechnology experiment ignite the worst pandemic of modern times?
In a momentous development, the US Government has suspended funding from the biotech company increasingly linked to the origins of the Covid pandemic that slew seven million people. Continue reading »
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Changing skills language to help save humanity
Words and phrases used to define, classify, and order our world, combine to tell a good story. That story, told often enough, seems normal. But that story can hide, ignore, and distort, reinforcing unhelpful beliefs and stereotypes. This is what’s happening with stories about skills and occupations. Continue reading »
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Are our policy makers Voltaire’s illegitimate children ?
Aged care and disability services bureaucratic elites seem increasingly to work in ways that are divorced from morality and common sense and removed from the everyday reality experienced by older people and their families. Continue reading »
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The budget that forgot health
Every element of Australia’s health system is in trouble. But you’d never know it from looking at this year’s budget. Continue reading »
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Want to save public hospitals? First, stop being stupid
Under-funding is not the main reason for the crisis in Australia’s public hospitals. A far bigger problem is systemic stupidity. Continue reading »
