Health
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It’s the vaccine rollout, stupid!
Bill Clinton certainly had a feel for what ‘worked’ in getting himself elected, and then re-elected. He knew that the electorate had one major concern, and all the other matters were just background noise. Cue Scott Morrison and his Government. The vaccine rollout, period. Fix that, and you are home. No more lockdowns, no more Continue reading »
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Covid 2021 – Lessons from Dunkirk about unused resources. Think pharmacies
With the Covid Vaccination rollout in danger of stalling 18 months into the program, it is time to reconsider what underutilised Australian resources can be used to accelerate the rollout process. Continue reading »
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‘Humanity Must Stand Together’: Top Medical Ethicists Demand Vaccine Patent Waivers
Two medical ethicists are the latest to argue that the World Trade Organization must lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines to save lives both in the Global South, where inoculations against the virus are lagging, and in wealthy countries which is likely to face future infectious disease outbreaks if they continue hoarding the supplies needed to fight Continue reading »
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Fear God, not the pandemic in Indonesia.
July 20 will be a big day in Indonesia. It marks the end of more than two weeks of lockdown, and it’s Bloody Tuesday – Idul Adha, the feast of the sacrifice. This year participants may become victims. Continue reading »
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We can complete a full mRNA rollout by end of 2021. Here’s the plan
How many attempts do we give Scott Morrison to fix the ongoing Covid quarantine and vaccine rollout debacle? There have been mistakes, holdups with vaccine deliveries and unforeseen complications, but it is possible to develop a plan to get us out of the turmoil he has inflicted upon us, and do it by the end Continue reading »
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When should mandatory vaccination be on the agenda?
Back in August 2020, when announcing that Australia had negotiated a deal to procure supplies of coronavirus vaccines, the Prime Minister was quizzed by Melbourne radio commentator Neil Mitchell about whether vaccination should be compulsory. The PM hedged his bets – he would ‘expect it to be as mandatory as you can possibly make [it]’. Continue reading »
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Ageing is not a lifestyle choice:
Frail older people and their family carers are in the hands of evidence free government zealots favouring market solutions to aged care provision and consumer lobbyists. Continue reading »
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AstraZeneca vaccine: let young people choose for themselves
Choosing the AstraZeneca vaccine involves weighing up the risks and benefits. Young people weigh these differently from older generations, and should be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves. Continue reading »
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Lockdown’s compulsory in Indonesia – if you like
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan doesn’t read Pearls & Irritations. That’s obvious because the former general and Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s Mr Fixit alleged he was blindsided by the latest tsunami of Covid 19. 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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National Cabinet is not to blame, unless you ask the State Governments
There has been a subtle but nevertheless significant shift in the operation of the National Cabinet. It reflects the growing evidence that Prime Minister Scott Morrison recognises he is no longer in control of Australia’s response to the Covid pandemic and that many people are questioning his increasingly inept performance. Continue reading »
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Australian Government silent on CSL, Red Cross contaminated blood scandal; UK government accepts ‘moral responsibility’
The Government still refuses to apologise and offer financial support to the up to 20,000 victims of the contaminated blood scandal as recommended 17 years ago by a Senate Committee. Labor has acknowledged the “historic injustice” but says it can’t do anything. Is it because CSL, the darling of Australia’s business community, lies at the Continue reading »
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Can we have confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration?
Two recent decisions by the TGA have further reduced the confidence that health professionals and consumers have in the regulation of complementary medicines. The first was allowing complementary medicines as a reward for people vaccinated against COVID-19. The second was approving a TGA assessed (Aust L(A)) application for Caruso’s Prostate EZE Max. Continue reading »
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Nobody’s handmaiden: how nurses are taking on the top jobs despite opposition.
For so many years, nurses have been viewed as doctors handmaidens, as subordinate professionals. Indeed, the way in which the medically-dominated Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce (MBSRT) treated the 14 evidence-based, patient-focussed, recommendations of its own Nurse Practitioner Reference Group (NPRG) – namely, by rejecting all of them – suggests that for some medical practitioners, Continue reading »
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Finding the origins of COVID-19 and preventing future pandemics
An international and independent investigation to examine the alternative hypotheses is urgently needed, and the US and Chinese governments should cooperate fully and transparently with such an inquiry. In the meantime, scientists, politicians, and pundits should acknowledge the uncertainties that currently prevail. Continue reading »
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The curse of coal and government health malfeasance
Policies which prolong the life of coal shorten the lives of many Australians and must be confronted – they are preventable deaths. It is distressing that ideology and ignorance have come to this. Continue reading »
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Can the success of the NHS vaccination rollout in the UK be applied in other areas of healthcare?
The success of the NHS covid-19 vaccination programme shows the benefits of national leadership and local delivery in healthcare. Working at speed and scale, the programme put in place a service delivery model that delivered a standard offer to the public with the aim of achieving equity in vaccine delivery and zero waste. The question Continue reading »
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Financial penalties for avoidable hospitalisations.
The 2020-25 Commonwealth-state hospital funding agreement requires the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority to consider penalties for excessive rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations. The new penalty would sit alongside existing penalties on states with higher-than-expected rates of ‘adverse events’ in hospitals. Continue reading »
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Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout, Part 4. A good outcome by Christmas is possible
A move away from AstraZeneca is inevitable in Australia’s vaccine rollout, brought on by the need to reach herd immunity and to resolve the blood clot concerns. We forecast plenty of Pfizer arriving from after September, and the possibility of completing a high efficacy vaccine rollout by December. For the coming months, though, the rollout Continue reading »
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Dissecting the controversy around Medicare reform and a disappointing response from the ALP
Any plan to change Medicare — especially if it comes from a Coalition government — is bound to attract controversy. So when health minister Greg Hunt announced a fortnight ago that more than 900 items on the Medicare benefits schedule would be changed with just a month’s notice, the reaction was immediate. Continue reading »
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Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout, Part 3. In June 2021 we are at the crossroads
The first week of June will be significant in Australia’s Covid story. Victoria had entered lockdown on Thursday 27 May after a case of community infection arrived via Adelaide. Another more dangerous variant would also appear. Australians would react with more heading out to get a jab, but not in sufficiently large enough numbers. Pressures Continue reading »
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Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout, Part 2. What we’ve been delivered
At a press conference about the vaccine rollout in December, Health Minister Greg Hunt said, “our goal is to under-promise and over-deliver”. Over January and February, the rollout was mapped out for us. However, the problems that soon developed were not a case of ‘the best-laid plans’ going awry but more like a case of Continue reading »
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Should procedural specialists be the highest earning doctors in the nation?
Data shows that procedural specialist doctors earn more per year than many other professionals in Australia and that the highest earning doctors in Australia are surgeons and anaesthetists, earning almost twice what general practitioners (GPs) earn. Why is this so and can it be justified? Continue reading »
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Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout: what we were promised
How does the original Covid rollout compare with what we are experiencing right now and what we are likely to end up with? In Part 1 we look at what we were promised. In Part 2 we examine how the rollout collapsed. In Part 3 we find that at mid-year, significant changes to our rollout Continue reading »
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Rogue doctors and the good character test
With the death of former medical practitioner, Geoffrey Edelsten, one can predict that there will be commentators and journalists who will seek to laud him. Here is a different view. Continue reading »
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How Victoria’s lockdown finally got Australia in vaccination mode
The sluggish vaccination rates that we have witnessed in the weeks leading up to Victoria’s fourth lockdown have been attributed to Australians being happy to play a waiting game. The switch from vaccination apathy to vaccination frenzy, in the wake of Victoria’s fourth lockdown, provides a teaching moment. Continue reading »
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Is the expanding medical workforce meeting changing community needs?
After around 20 years of expansion in medical workforce supply (Geffen, 2014), what are the key issues facing the medical workforce today? When producing more doctors, it is essential to ensure the additional doctors are used to meet the population need for healthcare, rather than reinforcing a paradox of overtreatment and overdiagnosis for some of Continue reading »
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Regulating Alcohol in the Northern Territory: in whose interest?
Woolworths commissioned a report into its strategy to establish a major alcohol retail outlet in Darwin that questions standards of governance within both corporate Australia and the Northern Territory. Continue reading »
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