Health
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ICC Cricket World Cup: Alcohol-drenched culture needs to change.
Many media outlets today have drawn attention to the alcohol influenced behaviour of Australian cricketers as they celebrated winning the International World Cup. At the celebration in Federation Square in Melbourne yesterday morning, the Australian captain Michael Clarke seemed to be proud of the fact that all the team members had hangovers. In the link Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Improving health outside the health portfolio
Ministers for Health in Australia are seen very largely as ministers in charge of health services rather than health. The fact is that some major issues causing poor health or which could be the means to improve health are outside the normal health portfolio. Major health problems are caused by junk food, alcohol and tobacco. Continue reading »
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Alex Wodak. Why is illicit drug use considered evil?
It seems self-evident to many that the use of illicit drugs is evil. But why? When pressed, the most common response to this question is that illicit drug use is evil because it is against the law. So the next question is ‘why is the use of certain drugs illegal?’ State parliaments in Australia started Continue reading »
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John Menadue. More problems with the Department of Health and Ageing.
On 16 March, I drew attention to a Capability Review of the Department of Health and Ageing by the Australian Public Service Commission. It set out a very worrying analysis of the overall performance of DHA. We now have a report by the Australian National Audit Office of DHA’s administration of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Continue reading »
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Patrick Shanahan. Connecting the Mouth to the Body
Why is dentistry not part of health care? Most people cannot understand why the mouth is not included in medical management, especially since there is mounting evidence that oral and dental infection can cause medical complications that cost many times more to treat medically than prevent dentally. How did this happen? Dentistry separated from medicine Continue reading »
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Stephen Duckett. Frequent flyers in health and the way we remunerate doctors.
Time for policy rethink as frequent GP attenders account for 41% of costs. The Commonwealth government’s big idea for primary health care in the past year was to charge everyone who visits the GP a A$7 co-payment. The idea had many problems – it could have led to a blowout in emergency department demand; it Continue reading »
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Kerry Goulston. Two health reform issues.
Instead of tinkering around the edges of Health Reform in Australia,and dodging meaningful revision of the Medical Benefits and Pharmaceutical Benefits Schemes, all Federal politicians and leading clinicians could be debating two issues which would have significant effects over the next 20 years. Currently thousands of clinicians (doctors, nurses, allied health and other healthcare providers) Continue reading »
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Wayne McMillan. Contemplating our Navels and Fiddling while Rome burns
We have become so self-absorbed that we have little time to think about anything else. We live also in an age of info trivia worship that has become a new art form. Australians have become preoccupied with keeping up with the Jones than helping their next door neighbour. The craving to possess the latest info Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Private health insurance and funding a Medicare Dental Scheme.
In this blog I have written extensively about the damage that private health insurance (PHI) is doing in Australia. We are sleep-walking into a US style health disaster. If people want private health insurance, that is their right, but I see no reason why the taxpayer should subsidise a socially divisive and nationally damaging subsidy. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. A capability review of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA)
In this blog I have raised many times my concerns about the major shortcomings of DHA and the barrier it presents to improved health policy and programs… We saw it most recently over the GP co-payment. I argue that the ministerial/departmental model in health has failed and needs review… Since 2011 the Australian Public Service Continue reading »
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Michael Gracey. Risks of Closing Remote Aboriginal Communities.
Forced dislocation from traditional homelands in the late 1960s and early 1970s made many Aboriginal families and groups move, for the first time, to small towns in the north and north-west of WA. This drift to strange environments with access to alcohol and living close to people from different backgrounds, languages and alien beliefs and Continue reading »
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Julia Davison. It takes a nation to raise a child.
The week after Australia Day each year, around 260,000 five-year old Australians start school. Of those, almost 60,000 children – 23 per cent – will start school developmentally vulnerable in some way. Children who start school behind often stay behind, and are likely to finish school with skills and competencies that have not equipped them Continue reading »
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Alex Wodak. Reducing the demand for illicit drugs
At his Congressional confirmation hearing in January 2001, the then Secretary of Defense-designate Donald Rumsfeld was asked whether US drug problems were best attacked by reducing demand or targeting drug supplies. Rumsfeld said that he believed that illicit drug use was “overwhelmingly a demand problem”. He added, “If demand persists, it’s going to find ways Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The 2015 Intergenerational Report
Purpose of the Intergenerational Report The Intergenerational Report (IGR) should be an important document. It purports to tell us what the Australian population, economy and Budget could look like in forty years time. Of course no-one really knows what the economy will look like in forty years time. Instead the IGR tells us how fast Continue reading »
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Alex Wodak. The current imbalance between public and private interests.
The public interest, meaning ‘the welfare or wellbeing of the general public’, has always competed with private interests. Furthermore, public and private interests will always be in competition. What is so unusual about the current tension is the extreme imbalance: these days, private interests almost always get what they want. The policy domination by huge companies Continue reading »
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Graham Freudenberg. Gough Whitlam Commemorative Oration.
You will see below what I think is a remarkable speech by Graham Freudenberg about Gough Whitlam’s contemporary relevance. This oration is much longer than I normally post on this blog, but it is an outstanding oration which I am sure you will enjoy. The Whitlam Institute will also be publicising this oration. John Menadue Continue reading »
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Stephen Leeder. Telling the story of mental health.
It is unusual for Foreign Affairs, a magazine published by the United States Council on Foreign Relations in New York, to contain articles on health, but the first issue of 2015 carries an essay (Darkness invisible: the hidden global costs of mental illness) by three distinguished scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health about Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Insurance – here we go again!
The Health Minister, Sussan Ley has just announced a 6.2% increase in private health insurance premiums. Increases of this order happen almost every year. Since the Howard government introduced the rebate on private health insurance in 1999, the cost of private health insurance has increased over 150%. Overall prices have increased by less than 50% Continue reading »
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John Menadue. How vested interests are subverting the public interest.
There are many key public issues that we must address. They include climate change, growing inequality, tax avoidance, budget repair, an ageing population, lifting our productivity and our treatment of asylum seekers. But our capacity to address these hard issues is becoming very difficult because of the ability of vested interests with their lobbying power Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Cover-up in the health system.
There is an unacceptable refusal by many in the health sector to publish data and information about how services are delivered. There is a cover-up by powerful providers who don’t want transparency and exposure about the way they work. At the Bundaberg Hospital some years ago it was clear that surgeons had little confidence in Continue reading »
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Michael Gracey. Why is closing the aboriginal health gap failing so badly?
The disparity between the health of Aboriginal people and other Australians first drew wide public attention In the 1960s; it became known as “The Aboriginal Health Problem”. This awareness came from reports of widespread and severe malnutrition in Aboriginal infants and young children, high rates of infections and gut parasites, high infant mortality, and reduced Continue reading »
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Mary Chiarella. Luke Foley – Nurse-led clinics and primary health care.
In 2011 I gave the last Oration for what was originally the NSW College of Nursing in the Great Hall of Sydney University. In it I advocated for nurses to be able to work to full scope of practice, particularly in the area of primary and preventive health care, in order to alleviate demands on Continue reading »
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Jill White. Nurse Led Clinics for NSW.
Luke Foley – great! Congratulations on committing to nurse led clinics as part of to a primary health care strategy to increase access to community based health care. The four nurse led clinics promised last week are a welcome adjunct to the current but often overstretched GP services. The ACT has led the way in Continue reading »
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Climate, Defence and Security, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, NBN, Politics, World Affairs
John Menadue. Fairness, Opportunity and Security – Filling the policy vacuum
I sense that there is great public concern that both the government and opposition keep playing the political and personal game at the expense of informed public discussion of important policy issues. We have become concerned about the trustworthiness of our political, business and media elite. Insiders and vested interests are undermining the public interest. Continue reading »
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John Attia, John Duggan. Why the government would have us pay more for poorer health.
The Coalition government has been claiming that Australia’s public health system is unsustainable since the 2014 budget. But its plans for the health system actually reflect the underlying belief that user-pays health systems are better – despite evidence to the contrary. Less than a year and a half into the Abbott government’s first term, we’re Continue reading »
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John Dwyer. Health Policy Reform Commentary – Part 2
In the first part of my commentary on John Menadue’s Health Policy Reform in his blog, I discussed the barriers frustrating any reform agenda. In this second part I will comment on John Menadue’s suggestions for “overcoming these obstacles to health reform” and provide my own thoughts on what a reformed health system might look Continue reading »
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John Dwyer. Commentary on John Menadue’s blogs on the barriers to health policy reform in Australia. (Part 1)
As I suspected would be the case with many readers who enjoy “Pearls and Irritations”, I experienced in equal measure, satisfaction and frustration as I absorbed John Menadue’s informed and insightful analysis of the problems that beset our health system and prevent urgently needed structural reforms. His three essays accurately explore the major issues. He Continue reading »
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John Menadue – 30th anniversary of Medicare
This article was initially posted on 1st February last year, the 30th anniversary of Medicare. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Part 2 – what can we learn from overseas health services?
Part 2 in this series was originally posted in August last year. In my blog of 6th October on what we can learn from overseas health systems, I drew attention and warned against government subsidised private health insurance. Any growth in this industry spells trouble for a good health service. Another thing that we could Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Part 1 – what can we learn from overseas health systems?
This article was initially posted in June last year. There has recently been quite a number of articles, including in The Conversation, about what we can learn from overseas health systems. Before looking at these international comparisons, it is worth reminding ourselves that we do have a pretty good health service in Australia. It is Continue reading »
