Health
-
The shabby treatment of nurses by medical doctors.
A collection of recent articles about the dismissal of the key role of nurses by the Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce. The doctor dominated Taskforce is determined not to understand that nurses hold the health system together… Continue reading »
-
Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 2
If there is a “brotherhood of man” now is the time for it to manifest itself as we respond to the enormous challenge involved in overcoming the inequity that could stop us winning the struggle with a deadly virus. Of course in helping the less fortunate we will be helping ourselves…. Continue reading »
-
Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 Pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 1
At a meeting recently in Texas the chairman of the International Association for the Promotion of SARS viruses addressed an enthusiastic audience. Representatives of all strains of COVID-19 currently having their way with humans were present. “How much better is this than being confined to a dingy cave resting in a Bat”, he laughed. “How… Continue reading »
-
Is the Darwin Dan Murphy’s Woolworths a Juukan Gorge moment?
As time has passed, opposition to Woolworths’ plans for a massive alcohol store near three dry Indigenous communities in Darwin has strengthened and become more vociferous. Even with the assistance of a pliant Northern Territory Government, approval of this shocking plan remains in doubt…. Continue reading »
-
Nurse Practitioners must be recognised by the Medical Benefits Schedule
For the sake of improved nationwide health care delivery, in its eventual response to the MBS Review, we sincerely hope that government is able to demonstrate an enlightened approach to the role of Nurse Practitioners in Australia…. Continue reading »
-
Surely pre-senile dementia is too high a price to pay for sporting glory
Watching 22-year-old cricketer Will Pucovski collapse after a rock-hard ball travelling at more than 100mph smashed into the side of his head was literally sickening. The ninth time he would be diagnosed as having concussion, the cumulative damage to his brain could be very serious…. Continue reading »
-
Medicare Review: professional mobbing and cartel behaviour against nurses
The long-awaited Medicare Benefits Scheme Taskforce Review (MBSTR) Report has been released but brought little joy for those seeking contemporary health care delivery, improved consumer choice, and outcome-based care…. Continue reading »
-
What is the fate of the MBS Review Task Force and its work? (Croakey Dec 21, 2020)
Five years in the making, the Final Report of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Task Force was quietly released last week. Associate Professor Lesley Russell outlines the wide-ranging findings and how they are likely to shape the future of the MBS…. Continue reading »
-
Let’s all shout out for our nurses in 2021
During COVID-19, it is the nurses who are predominantly in the front line. Doctors can come into a ward, see patients and then move on. The nurses stay there. They are the ones most exposed to infection. They put their lives on the line. And they are true professionals, to be valued and respected. Let’s… Continue reading »
-
Health Professionals during the pandemic
In a short period of time the coronavirus crisis has disrupted most aspects of Australian life – the economy, our social and cultural activities, education, health, and transport. It is becoming exceedingly clear to the public the extraordinary role that doctors, and nurses have played during this pandemic…. Continue reading »
-
The global effort by anti-vaxxers to destroy confidence in Covid-19 vaccines
With the global effort to immunise 8 billion people leaving the station the challenges involved are immense…. Continue reading »
-
We thought you saw us nurses – seems we were wrong
In 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife there has been a focus on nurses and nursing. Not the one planned, but nonetheless, nurses have been seen: by politicians and the public. But not by the medical doctors with their vested interests…. Continue reading »
-
Dentists, overtreatment and policy deficiencies
A recent article in Pearls and Wisdom discussed the issue of “overtreatment” (the provision of unnecessary or low priority care) in dentistry and the associated issue of the conflict between ethics and profits…. Continue reading »
-
A perverse, offensive and oppressive rejection of nurses
The Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce further curtails Nurse Practitioner practice – a case of unenlightened self-interest?… Continue reading »
-
What has happened to influenza (and everything else) during the COVID-19 pandemic?
By December 10 2020, there have been over 68 million cases of COVID-19 and over 1.5 million deaths worldwide. But there has been a dramatic reduction in influenza, a winter illness responsible for about 3000 deaths annually in Australia… Continue reading »
-
Overtreatment in Dentistry: A Professional Controversy
Overtreatment is clearly an ethical issue in dentistry; we need leadership within the profession that is not afraid to confront the challenges which face both practitioners and the public…. Continue reading »
-
El Cheapo Aged Care: why the Coalition’s make-work schemes won’t work
The best interests of older people are not uppermost in this government’s thinking. Referring to older people requiring care as “consumers”, describing the transfer of residents to hospital as “decanting”, talk of “cohorting” residents into specific sections of a home and other dehumanising language set the scene for its priorities…. Continue reading »
-
There were shocking Covid-19 infection rates in USA arrivals in March – why were flights not shut down?
In early March this year, our experts should have gone in search of hard data. They would quickly have determined that the infection rate in USA arrivals was in dire contrast to the published USA rates…. Continue reading »
-
Three cheers for health workers who care for patients, communities and the planet
During the Covid crisis doctors and heath care workers have been a ‘light on the hill’ for service and dedication to humanity. By September 2020 over 7000 around the world had died from Covid contracted at work…. Continue reading »
-
Fraudster will create US COVID vaccination problems
In the US we can guarantee that someone among the anti-vaxxers will be claiming that the new President is trying to poison them and/or forcibly convert them to communism…. Continue reading »
-
‘Our Malady’ by Timothy Snyder: Lessons for Australia in health care
While this is a book about American healthcare, it raises issues that are relevant to Australia. Written earlier this year, many issues facing current healthcare – both in hospitals and in the community – are discussed. … Continue reading »
-
The people with disabilities who regularly miss out
Disability has been co-opted by bureaucracies, professional bodies and institutions, often in a harmful way … Instead of seeing welfare as a social drain, ‘faring well’ should be an act of decency, a helping hand to a contributing life…. Continue reading »
-
Review of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Framework
Just two years on from the implementation of new laws to control advertising for misleading and deceptive therapeutic goods, the scheme is in tatters. Having failed to halt a wave of wrongful conduct and in the face of growing numbers of complaints the TGA has given up on systematic enforcement…. Continue reading »
-
Covid vaccine claims 90% efficacy; Australia has bought 10 million doses
It was an exciting announcement for Covid-weary people everywhere – but while Scott Morrison has endorsed the importance of sharing vaccines, Australia voted to prevent developing countries from having the chance to build local production…. Continue reading »
-
Biden wins the poisoned chalice as we pray for a coronavirus vaccine
The challenges facing President-elect Joe Biden and his team are daunting; A polarised population, high levels of unemployment, a likely Republican-dominated senate, and the perseverance of COVID-19 to name a few…. Continue reading »
-
Hotel quarantine interim report on outsourcing recommends changes but accountability questions remain (Kristen Rundle, The Conversation 6.11.20)
If the front line of the hotel quarantine system was simply too important a responsibility to be outsourced, it is time to get to the bottom of why this was the case, and why it might also be the case for other high-stakes government functions that carry serious consequences for public health or safety…. Continue reading »
-
Where to send granny? Bringing the last generation back into total society
There used to be five. Two have died in the past year, so with just three using wheelchairs and walking frames the street looks less like an archipelagic version of what Australia used to call ‘nursing homes’. That was before Covid-19 and realising the term was a lie…. Continue reading »
-
Around the world it is the lack of caution among 19-29 year olds that disproportionally puts infection control at risk
The Victorian ‘lockdown’ was necessary, brutal and successful. But any COVID complacency could be literally fatal. We must ask a lot of our younger Australians who understandably chafe at restrictions placed on their social interactions…. Continue reading »
-
Tianshu Bai et al. Private or Public? The declining use of private healthcare in Australia (Melbourne Institute Oct 2020)
Australia has seen a steady decline in private health insurance (PHI) membership in the past five years. Since June 2015, the proportion of Australians with private health insurance has fallen from 47.4 per cent to 43.6 per cent in March 2020…. Continue reading »
-
Angelique Chan. Asian countries do aged care differently. Here’s what we can learn from them (The Conversation Oct 23, 2020)
Unlike in Western countries like Australia, traditional Asian cultures place a heavy emphasis on filial piety — the expectation children will support their parents in old age…. Continue reading »
Top 5 most read
- Look at Morrison and see for yourself
The LNP, led by the mendacious Morrison, is in a… - A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government
A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government. It’s… - Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy… - The role of the ADF and its core business model
The core business of the ADF “will always be the… - Is Ben Roberts-Smith the Biggest Anzac Story since…
When Brendan (“Biggles”) Nelson, AWM Director at the time, heard…
