International News

Haiti earthquake 2010

Donate to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal or call 1800 811 700.

The Australian Red Cross has launched an appeal following a devastating 7.3 magnitude earthquake 15 kms off the Haitian coast at approximately 5.00 pm local time on 12 January 2010. Local and international Red Cross personnel staff and volunteers are providing relief in the most needed areas. 

HAITI: New drugs blow to Haiti aid effort

10 February 2010: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stopped providing free drugs to private clinics and NGOs in Haiti after reports patients were being charged, potentially dealing a big blow to the already stumbling aid effort.

US: Michelle Obama spearheads US push against childhood obesity

10 February 2010: First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday launched a major push against childhood obesity, which affects around one in three US children and threatens to make the current generation of Americans the first to live shorter lives than their parents.

UK: US hospital 'kite mark' scheme could boost nurse retention

9 February 2010: Nursing directors should be actively explore the adoption of a US accreditation programme that recognises excellence in nursing care, according to the lead nurse piloting the scheme in the NHS. The Magnet recognition programme, developed by the American Academy of Nursing in the 1980s, awards a “kite mark” to hospitals that satisfy a set of criteria designed to measure the strength and quality of nursing care.

US: Nurse in legal trouble for reporting doctor

9 February 2010: A Texas nurse is on trial this week for reporting a doctor whose practices she believed endangered patients. As Kevin Sack of the New York Times reports, last year Anne Mitchell submitted a report expressing her concerns about Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr.'s prescription and surgical procedures—including sewing a rubber tip onto a patient's finger for "protection," a technique that was later questioned and found improper by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

US: Too many with end-stage dementia get feeding tubes

9 February 2010: Larger hospitals and those that are set up to make a profit are more likely to use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia, despite evidence that the practice does not prolong life or help with bed sores and other problems. According to prior research, more than one-third of U.S. nursing home residents with advanced dementia have feeding tubes. About two-thirds of these have the tube inserted during an acute-care hospitalization.

AFRICA: Bad malaria pills in Africa raise fears

9 February 2010: Many of the most effective malaria-fighting drugs sold in three African countries are poor quality, raising fears of rising drug resistance by a disease that kills a million people each year, a US report says.

UK: Welcome for cancer nurse plan

8 February 2010

Nursing leaders have welcomed a pledge that cancer patients could have their own personal specialist nurses. The pledge is expected to be made today by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he set out his stall for the coming general election.

US: Medicare reimbursement change meant to save money has opposite effect

8 February 2010: Increased Medicare payments to physicians for outpatient surgeries for bladder cancer have led to a dramatic rise in the number of these procedures being performed and an overall increase in cost to the healthcare system. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The findings indicate that some Medicare policies aimed at decreasing costs may instead be contributing to an increase in healthcare expenditures.

US: On a personal trip to Haiti, nurse is in midst of quake survivors' ordeal

5 February 2010: Fathia Davis, 42, is a nursing student at Winston-Salem State University. Five days after the earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, Davis left her home in Matthews to look for her parents, Roche and Rolande Maignan, both 76. The Maignans live in the rural town of Taytein, which is about 12 miles from Port-au-Prince. They haven't been seen or heard from since the magnitude-7 earthquake struck.Sometimes, word that she had medical training would spread among the survivors. "They would grab you to ask you to fix a limb or a body part that was not repairable," Davis said.

US: Informatics experts contribute to special Health Affairs edition on e-health in the developing world

5 February 2010: Five articles, whose lead or senior authors are nationally known informatics leaders and members of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), appear in the Feb. 2010 issue of Health Affairs and provide a glimpse into the future of health care delivery in an increasingly information-driven era of health care in the developing world. These articles explain the critical role that information technology, and the health informatics work force will play in achieving overall health improvements globally. The articles further reflect innovative program initiatives AMIA and its membership currently have underway on a global scale.

US: Healthy baby campaign uses texts to reach mothers

5 February 2010: Expectant mothers are getting a new tool to help keep themselves and their babies healthy: pregnancy tips sent directly to their cell phones.

US: Head of nurse group: 'We can't afford not to' reform health care

4 February 2010: “Get a nationwide healthcare plan passed.” That was the message that floated in and out of an address given Jan. 25 at Ursuline College by Rebecca Patton, president of the 2.9-million-member American Nurses Association.

US: Obama urges compromise on health care reform

4 February 2010: After meeting congressional Republicans last week today Barack Obama met Democrats and told them that he'd made mistakes in his first year and that he was open to compromise on health.

Local News

WEEK COMMENCING 06 FEBRUARY 2010

Hospital bed situation critical across NSW

10 February 2010: NSW hospitals would need thousands more beds if a bold national plan to slash waiting times in emergency departments is to succeed. The plan aims to halve current standard waiting times of eight hours and is being led by South Australian Premier Mike Rann, who faces a tough election battle next month.

Obese teens urged to consider lap band surgery

10 February 2010: Severly obese teenagers are being urged to consider lap band surgery after a major Australian study found it led to dramatic weight loss and greatly improved health.

Rudd ponders more control for hospital staff

10 February 2010: The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has foreshadowed changes that would hand greater autonomy to public hospitals - a plan also being floated by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. Mr Rudd said appeals by many clinicians and staff for control of hospital finances had been clearly stated during consultation with 100 hospitals.

Sickest patients head to Nambour

10 February 2010: The “sickest patients” in Queensland visit the Nambour General Hospital’s emergency department. The latest Queensland Health figures show Nambour hospital has the highest number of admissions and transfers in the state.

From possums to puddles: nurse hurt in fall at troubled hospital

10 February 2010: A senior nurse was undergoing emergency surgery last night after slipping in a puddle caused by a leaking vent at the decaying Hornsby hospital. Her fall came two months after orders were given to hide the crumbling, water-damaged ceiling by painting over it.

Raise the drinking age

10 February 2010: Raising the drinking age to 21 has won overwhelming support from Tasmanians responding to an online poll. Seventy per cent agreed the drinking age should go up though the idea found little support among the young or the hospitality industry.

Experts toast PM's drinking preference

9 February 2010: A "substantial'' number of young lives would be saved if the legal drinking age was increased to 21 as suggested by the Prime Minister, a Queensland professor who advises the World Health Organisation on the issue says.

AMA rejects emergency waiting time figures

9 February 2010: Doctors have rejected the latest emergency waiting time figures at the Hervey Bay Hospital in south-east Queensland. Figures for November last year show only 67 per cent of category one emergency patients were treated on time.

Medical certificate regime working

9 February 2010: An initiative that enables pharmacists to issue medical certificates is working two years after its introduction, according to the Pharmacy Guild, despite suggestions that many pharmacists are reluctant to take it up.

Private health funds in 'good shape'

9 February 2010: The federal government has used new figures to declare health funds are in good shape and can deal with Labor's plan to means test the private health insurance rebate.

Benefits scheme to cost $13B by 2018

9 February 2010: Health Minister Nicola Roxon has suggested further reforms to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) may be necessary, with independent modelling showing costs could blow out to $13 billion in 2018.

Dutton: Health change deniers

9 February 2010: Having failed to deliver on their promises to fix health, Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon are now trying to re-write history. The Minister’s contention today that there was no promise to ‘fix’ hospitals by mid-2009 defies belief, Shadow Minister for Health Peter Dutton said.

Calvary: 'real work begins now'

9 February 2010: Canberra and Goulburn Archbishop Mark Coleridge says the termination of negotiations to sell Calvary Public Hospital "means that in the new circumstances all must work together to ensure the best possible delivery of health care for the ACT community".

Clinical trials can be for people and country

8 February 2010: Clinical trials involving volunteer patients form an integral part of the development of new healthcare interventions. Clinical trials also form an important industry in Australia; injecting an estimated $450 million dollars to the Australian knowledge economy. But like the healthcare system itself the clinical trials industry is ailing. Many barriers to the more efficient approval and conduct of clinical trials are reducing the incentives for both local and foreign companies to conduct clinical trials in Australia.

Too much slip, slop, slap a bad thing for pregnant mums

8 February 2010: The "Slip, Slop, Slap" message about avoiding the sun could be working too well with doctors warning of widespread vitamin D deficiency. We're supposed to be a nation of sun worshippers, but longer working hours, our indoors lifestyle and an overzealous avoidance of UV rays has seen an increase in poor vitamin D levels in expectant mothers.

Don't come to us for sickies, say pharmacists

9 February 2010: Pharmacists are reluctant to use powers authorising them to issue medical certificates, citing a lack of diagnostic skills and a fear of being sued. Two years after the Federal Government changed the rules for pharmacists in an attempt to ease the burden on GPs, the system seems to have failed.

States push back against national hospital takeover

8 February 2010: The federal government appears increasingly unlikely to seek a mandate to take over public hospitals, as a revamp of community health and GP services instead moves to the centre of the national health reform agenda.

LEAP to attract rural docs

8 February 2010: Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, and Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Warren Snowdon, last week launched a national program that will offer emergency training for up to 150 urban GPs in exchange for their undertaking a locum placement in a rural or regional areas.

Subsidy for diabetics gets pumped up

7 February 2010: The federal government is boosting the subsidy for children who require insulin pumps for type1 diabetes. The maximum subsidy under the federal pump program is being raised from $2500 to $6400 – about 80 per cent of the cost of an insulin pump.

Swine flu expected to be main flu in 2010

6 February 2010: Swine flu is expected to be the dominant strain of influenza in 2010 and Australians should consider early vaccinations to be prepared, Australia's Chief Medical Officer says. Jim Bishop says the second wave of the H1N1 virus is expected to come through in the next few months and is likely to be earlier than the usual flu outbreak.

Hospital reform deadlock

6 February 2010: Victoria's model of hospital funding would be adopted across the nation with the Commonwealth picking up part of the tab for each patient, under a reform option firming in federal-state talks. The fallback option has become the idea of rolling out ''case-mix'' funding across the country, and splitting both the costs and the incentive to keep demand for services in check.

Nurses often silent about workplace violence

6 February 2010: The physical and verbal abuse nurses face on the job often goes unreported, according to an Australian survey.

Author puts new slant on right-to-die debate

6 February 2010: British sci-fi writer Terry Pratchett has reignited the debate about physician-assisted suicide, calling for tribunals that could permit people to end their lives with medical help. In a televised BBC speech delivered with the help of a friend, Pratchett – who suffers from Alzheimer's disease – said measures should be adopted allowing people to decide the time and circumstances of their death.

Govt seeks input on mental health

5 February 2010: Dr Robert Walters, a Tasmanian GP and former divisions’ head who sits on the NACMH, tells 6minutes that specialised and community mental health practitioners need to be prudent in how many services they provide to one patient, but that GPs should be mindful of other resources such as mental health nurses when referring.

Minor ailment push 'ill advised'

5 February 2010: Making pharmacists the first point of call for the treatment of minor ailments is 'ill-advised" and could put patients at a greater risk, according to Australia's peak doctors' body.

Poor miss out on medical items

5 February 2010: Chronically ill patients face out-of-pocket costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for essential medical items such as wound dressing and oxygen supplies because of the growth in out-of-hospital care not covered by Medicare.

Controversial Health boss leaves Territory

4 February 2010: Department of Health and Families boss David Ashbridge has quit after three controversial years at the helm. He was stripped of his control of hospitals last year after a number of damning coronial investigations.

Pharmacy centre for minor ailments: ASMI

4 February 2010: The makers of over-the-counter drugs have called on the Federal Government to develop an awareness campaign to persuade patients with minor ailments to see the pharmacist as their first point of call.

Roxon under fire for Super Clinic gaps

4 February 2010: Health minister Nicola Roxon has been accused by federal opposition MPs of failing to deliver GP Super Clinics fast enough to fill gaps where funding has been removed from after-hours services.

Nurses converge on Canberra

4 February 2010: Twenty aged care nurses and residents have gone to Canberra to speak with MPs and senators about increased funding for aged care. The visit to the nation’s capital was organised by the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) as part of its campaign to put the focus on aged care in the 2010-11 budget.

Relay for Life: Cancer Council

15–16 May 2010: Relay For Life is a unique, overnight fundraising event that brings communities together in the fight against cancer. Whether you are a cancer survivor, a carer, supporting friends or loved ones, or simply wanting to make a difference, Relay For Life empowers everyone who participates.

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