Health
-
Australian Medical Association’s aged care money grab
The Australian Medical Association, a lobby group and peak body for doctors, has offered up a thinly disguised money-grab in the form of expert recommendations in response to the Aged Care Royal Commission…. Continue reading »
-
Lobby Land. The power of the health lobby. Health ministers may be in office but they are not in power. An update.
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers- the health lobby. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform. We have been going around in circles. It is very depressing. The new shadow minister Mark Butler could succeed as Minister if… Continue reading »
-
Australia assists Big Pharma to stall vaccine roll out.
As the Australian vaccine rollout languishes the Australian Government appears to value pharma profits over protecting people from Covid…. Continue reading »
-
Aged care – where sexism and ageism walk hand in hand
Double jeopardy: being female and being old…. Continue reading »
-
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 »
-
Experts warn failure to rapidly ‘Vaccinate the World’ creates dangerous opening for Covid-19 mutations
Epidemiologists from dozens of countries around the world issued a loud warning Tuesday that failure to ensure global administration of Covid-19 vaccines within the next year—at the very latest—could allow vaccine-resistant variants to spread among unprotected populations to such an extent that current shots are rendered ineffective…. Continue reading »
-
The ‘ecology of attention’ in health and social care
Every single transaction expends precious time of attention; time which is even more precious amidst the escalating claims on our attention. Those needing support and treatment are hoping to have their circumstances and problems understood, they seek attention, attention to the way their lives have been affected…. Continue reading »
-
The unfortunate reality for private health insurance premiums
On 21 December last year, Health Minister Greg Hunt announced “the lowest annual average [private health insurance] premium change for consumers since 2001”. However, the affordability of private health insurance for many consumers continues to decline and is likely to get worse…. Continue reading »
-
WHO Chief blasts ‘Grotesque’ vaccine inequality as rich nations block speedy end of global pandemic
As rich nations like the United States and pharmaceutical companies face sustained calls to share Covid-19 vaccine knowledge, the head of the World Health Organization on Monday decried the “grotesque” global inequality of vaccine distribution. “We have the means to avert this failure but it’s shocking how little has been done to avert it”, said… Continue reading »
-
Vaccine rollout hindered by lack of recognition for nurse practitioners
A general practitioner will be required to supervise nurse practitioners as they administer the COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that was made without concerns of health and safety. This means under-resourced and at-risk communities will be slower to gain access to the vaccine,… Continue reading »
-
More talk, no action: Australia’s approach to trade rules restraining vaccine production
Papua New Guinea’s COVID-19 outbreak is a portent of the “catastrophic moral failure” the head of the World Health Organization warned of in January due to poor countries being pushed to the back of the vaccine queue…. Continue reading »
-
Do we still burn witches? The petition to pardon Kathleen Folbigg over the death of her four children
The recent petition to the NSW Governor to pardon Mrs Kathleen Folbigg led me to read the 557 page report of the inquiry conducted into her case in 2019. What I read made me feel uncomfortable and raises a number of questions for the legal system and for all of us who are subject to… Continue reading »
-
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 »
-
How effective are the Covid vaccines for our global immunisation efforts?
While there are more than 200 vaccines against Covid-19 being developed, there are now seven vaccines being widely distributed and used around the world. Do they all work? That depends on how you judge “works” often described in terms of “efficacy” in achieving desired goals…. Continue reading »
-
Developing a systems approach to enable patient navigation: A path to achieving patient empowerment?
The CSIRO Future of Health Report cites the importance of patient-centred healthcare but the current state is that the Australian healthcare system is cited both nationally and globally as too complex to navigate. Finding the consumer in the current system is likened to a game of Where’s Wally. In the 1990s, patient activism in HIV/AIDS… Continue reading »
-
Vaccine Diplomacy Is Paying Off for China
Beijing Hasn’t Won the Soft-Power Stakes, but It Has an Early Lead…. Continue reading »
-
QUAD: A public relations exercise to disguise Big Pharma’s obstruction and to combat Chinese vaccine successes
QUAD (US, Japan, India and Australia) was regarded as a strategic bloc to contain China. However, the recent virtual meeting between President Biden and Prime Ministers Suga, Modhi and Morrison ,whilst highlighting the provision vaccines to the region was really about curbing Chinese vaccine successes- an expression of soft power…. Continue reading »
-
The long Chinese march into Indonesia with vaccines
Chinese officials in Australia rarely miss an opportunity to chill relations by turning down the thermostat on our democratic values and way of seeing the world. Meanwhile, the Middle Kingdom’s men in Jakarta are playing a long and warming game.So far about four million have had their first vaccine shot and around 1.5 million needle… Continue reading »
-
Vaccination controversy shouldn’t compromise efforts to protect Australians
The crucial fact is that all the vaccines being administered around the world provide near 100% protection from death and the need for those infected to receive intensive hospital care…. Continue reading »
-
Australia could take a leaf from Indonesia’s personalised approach to aged care
Our street in Indonesia has 70 households. Many are mixed-generation families. With few nursing homes or retirement villages, and those being far away, families have two options: The kids do the caring or employ a carer. Either way, Grandpa or Grandma stays home…. Continue reading »
-
Vaccine nationalism: Australia votes to deny Covid vaccines to poorer countries
Australia, the US, the UK and the European Union are refusing to waive intellectual property rights to Covid-19 vaccines so developing countries can produce the vaccine locally. This refusal, in the face of vaccine hoarding by rich countries, is likely to cause millions more deaths. It is also short sighted because long delays in global… Continue reading »
-
Why dental care was excluded from Medicare and why it should now be included (an edited repost)
In 1974, the Whitlam Government decided to exclude dental care from Medicare for two reasons. The first was cost. The second was political. Whitlam felt that combatting the doctors would be hard enough without having to combat dentists as well. Forty-six years later, with Australia much richer and the proven success of Medicare, it is now… Continue reading »
-
Political stunt silences the Aged Care Royal Commission’s final report
Attempts to politicise the Aged Care Royal Commission report by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt underline the government’s failure to tackle the problems in aged care. The press conference, called at short notice with journalists given no time to prepare was a stunt to divert attention from the rape allegations against the… Continue reading »
-
How a nurse saved the day. And nurses do it every day.
Sadly, the critical role that nurses and midwives play in keeping people (and the health system) safe is all too often unseen and unrecognised. Maybe it is that we are so familiar and numerous that our role is somewhat taken for granted…. Continue reading »
-
Opportunity Lost: spark of a healthier nation was quickly snuffed out
Ten months ago I wrote about the opportunities the pandemic provided to tackle the many problems of our health ‘system’. I have watched with dismay as those opportunities have been frittered away, first by the Federal Government and more recently by the federal Labor Party…. Continue reading »
-
Vaccine rollout: the value or otherwise of a ‘vaccination certificate’. Part 3
Those who are vaccinated can still become infectious. Therefore proof of vaccination might not be sufficient for international travel as it does not guarantee a person is infection free. A ‘vaccination certificate’ can be wrongly used as a proxy for ‘not infectious’…. Continue reading »
-
Our C18th health workforce structure is riddled with demarcations, inefficiencies and antique work practices. (An edited repost)
Casual workers are fair game but the government is not prepared to tackle the very serious workforce inefficiencies in our large and growing health sector…. Continue reading »
-
Herd immunity? Not with AstraZeneca in the frame. Part 2
Because the failed immunity rate for the AstraZeneca vaccine is more than seven times that of the Pfizer vaccine, if the Australian rollout takes place as planned, about 5.5 million people (22% of the population) could still be at risk of getting ill, while some of the remaining 20 million could still become infectious but… Continue reading »
-
China, Russia steal a vaccine diplomacy march
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented mobilisation of advanced biotechnology globally. Progress in developing, testing and deploying vaccines has proceeded with breathtaking speed. China-Russia collaboration is helping to get cheap and effective Covid-19 vaccines to the developing world…. Continue reading »
-
We are Socioecological: health carers and advocates
Our Socioecological interdependence requires us to be in effective relationship with each other and our environment. Who we are, on what we depend, and what we can do to maintain a habitable, healthy, and sustainable place for all now matter more than ever…. Continue reading »
Top 5 most read
- A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government
A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government. It’s… - This one will blow up on Scotty: Christine…
For thirty years I have believed that, when it wants… - Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… - Not sleepwalking but marching with eyes wide open to…
A lie told often enough can become accepted, but it… - 21st century democracy: blurring the lines
President Biden, at his first press conference, said this: “Look,…
