Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Thursday Health Scope - Mental Health, Aged Care, Alcohol, First Aid, Health Reforms, Super Clinic, Later term abortion

Mental Health
- National R U OK? Day aimed at preventing suicide by encouraging Australians to ask friends , family and co-workers "are you okay?". Contact: www.ruoktoday.com.au

Aged Care
Ginninderra Gardens Nursing Home in Page, ACT was placed in lockdown for several days after 10 residents succumbed to gastroenteritis virus.

Alcohol
UK study suggests that pregnant mothers who drank one to two units of alcohol per week faced no detrimental effects in having healthy babies. However chief investigator at University of NSW's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Lucy Burns, says that given the increasing findings which show that alcohol impaired development in foetus' brains, abstinence is still the best approach for pregnant mothers

First Aid'
Guidelines on how best to keep heart attacks victims alive are being reviewed as research shows bystanders are more likely to save save lives by using chest compression alone, rather than full CPR.  The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Health Reforms
Bundaberg GP, Patrick Byrnes yesterday accused Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon of giving in to bureaucratic games and allowing a con reform which was established by past opposition health minister Tony Abbott, that dis-allowed specially trained practice nurses to carry out procedures such as immunisations, wound  dressings and Pap smears, to continue.

Cot Death
NSW Health produced a report which showed that one in eight newborns who die from cot-death have been placed in unsafe positions by midwives

Late-term abortion 
An Anglican minister has questioned late term abortion practise at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, claiming that babies who survived late term abortions may have been left to die on shelves. Health Department spokesman Bram Alexander said it was up to the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity to monitor trends and data. The council is due to release its 2008 report by the end of this year.

Super Clinic
PALMERSTON residents will by-pass the GP Super Clinic and go straight to the hospital emergency department because the new service does not offer bulk billing.


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posted by Celesimone @ 3:04 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

WED Health Scope - Aged Care, Panvax, Mental Health, Victoria Ambos, medical interns

Bump-Day! 

Mental Health

- $1m will be given out today to a number of groups for depression and anxiety related research by national depression initiative Beyondblue and the Vic Government.

 - Austn of the Year Patrick McGorry is currently visiting the Top End to learn more about the Mental Health Issues of Indigenous Youth. A rally was held in Darwin last week after a spate of youth suicides.  Dr Robert Parker, Vice Pres, NT AMA, says Aboriginal suicide rates in NT are rising. Parker says a Senate Inquiry identified most of the reasons for these suicides. He says those who complete Year 12 have been shown to be more in charge of their lives.

- The cost of stress-related claims is estimated to be $730M nationally, according to a study by Melbourne University associate professor Anthony LaMontagne. His study analysed the co-relation of stress and workplace conditions.

Organ Donation

 - Medicare Australia says Canberra Residents who have registered their donation with the Australian Organ Donor Register are being reminded to make sure their details are up to date. Human Services general manger HankJongens says the Transplant Games is a timely reminder fro Canberrans to talk to their families about their decisions.

Aged Care

- Private property operator Meridien has ended its four-year retirement partnership with AMP Capital Investors and found a new backer in the private equity arm of investment bank JPMorgan.

- ACT AMA president lain Dunlop said a tender was signed last week to provide home-bound senior patients, nursing home residents and other senior patients who were unable to book a GP at short notice, medical services at the convenience of their home and residence. The ACT GP Aged Day Service will operate MON - FRI from 8am - 5pm with link to the Canberra Afterhours Locum Medical Service

Swine Flu

 - WA health officials have sent an official health alert to GPs and immunisation clinics about the "considerably higher" rate of seizures reported in children having  the swine flu vaccine Panvax. This move was backed up by pharmaceuticals giant CSL, who further called for a centralised, electronic drug alert system, which can identify adverse reactions to medicines at a faster rate before widespread community health problems arise.

- A study has found that babies whose mothers are vaccinated against influenza while pregnant appear less likely to be infected with flu or hospitalised with respiratory illnesses during their first six months.

Alcohol

- Broome received moratorium to prevent liquor being sold after midnight - Wes Morris, co-ordinator of the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre said the draft plan did not go far enough. Morris critcised the lack of detail and financial commitments, claiming that a clinical focus driven by the Dept of Health is not going to solve a community problem which is alcohol abuse.

Victoria scandal re ambos 

- A leaked memo taken at a NOV 2009 Victoria Ambulance board meeting revealed that "recruitment has been delayed due to finance discussion with the Dept of Health" Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria Secretary, Steve McGhie, said the memo showed that the Govt was more interested in money than lives.

Health workforce

At a medical intern summit last week a consensus was reached to cap medical students intake until late 2011 and to reduce medical schools' reliance on international full-fee paying medical students. Australian Medical Students Association president, Mr Roberts-Thomson said that "to continue to increase the number of medical students would be a waste of taxpayers' money, university resources and students' time," It was further recommended that a  medical workforce planning advisory committee should be established under Health Workforce Australia to report on key supply and demand issues by the end of 2011.

Indigenous health

The co-ordinator general for Remote Indigenous Services, Brian Gleeson, said that it was taking govts too long to provide adequate facilities to indigenous communities. Gleeson called for PM Gillard to strip underachieving states on Aboriginal education and health services of funding and reward those which are showing progress with more payments.

thanks and regards,

Estle Iskandar 






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posted by Celesimone @ 2:35 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 04, 2010

TUE Health Scope

Good Morning,

Aged care dominated federal issue this morning with the release of the Incoming Government Briefs provided to the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation. The report released official advice that the Govt spent more than a quarter of its money on health, pensions and aged-care related expenditure.  Older pensioners moving into residential aged care will soon have to foot a portion of their nursing home bill. National Seniors CEO, Michael O'Neil called for a bipartisan support in new funding model for aged care. More on the Incoming Government Briefs report here - http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/IGB/

The public face of NEHTA National E-Health Transition Authority, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, says that more integration is needed to reap the benefits of NEHTA. Haikerwal called for a national implementation arm to be established so as to co-ordinate across states and myriads of private providers that administer the bulky healthcare. In the past year the Audit office has found GPs paid more than $83M on a communications standard which did not exist and that Medicare digital certificate issued to doctors could not be used for authentication

Head of Public Health Association of Australia, Helen Keleher, urged a federal rethink on Medicare Local as an outlet to educate people most at risk of poor health. 

The newly established AHPRA Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has issued an ultimatum to doctors to register by the end of October or risk a halt to run their practise from 1 November onwards. 
GPs criticised the handling of notifications by AHPRA, saying that letters sent out to doctor contained no "important" lettehead. 

Mental health champion and Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry, has called for suicide tolls to be released daily on newspaper like road death toll. 



Counter Oktoberfest with Ocsober - time to educate Australians on the benefits of sobering up - http://www.ocsober.com.au


More than 1000 health professionals in southeast QLD are expected to march to Parliament house on strike this Thursday, abandoning their duties at public hospitals to rally for better outcome on industrial issues. 


WA Premier Colin Barnett has once again scorned the federal hospital funding amidst criticims that his government is spending more on resources projects than health. WA Opposition Leaer Eric Ripper says that as difficult as it is, there must be more effort in reaching an agreement on the federal plan. 


VIC Coalition to invest $4M to improve safety of Victorian psychiatric wards after women alleged they were being harrased and raped by male patients. Chairwoman of Victoria Women and Mental Health Network, Heather Clarke, welcomed the investment, saying that not enough has been done by the govt to implement the segregation of patients and developing a gender sensitive approach in mental health policy. 


ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher reveals a COAG recommendation for a governing council to be formed for the running of local hospital network in Canberra. Unfortunately IR issues is blocking Queanbeyan hospital from being incorporated into this network.


thanks and regards,


Estle Iskandar 








posted by Celesimone @ 6:25 PM 0 comments

Floriade 2010-10-04


I took this picture of a man napping/sleeping underneath this poster at Floriade, hopefully his entourage was somewhere nearby......

posted by Celesimone @ 2:06 PM 0 comments