International News

US: What makes people a sex addict?

23 February 2010: Psychiatrists are taking another look at what laypeople call sex addiction. "Hypersexual disorder" is being proposed for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Rewritten every decade or so, the DSM classifies mental illnesses and is currently being revised for 2013.

US: Infections in US hospitals kill 48,000 each year

23 February 2010: Nearly 50,000 patients die every year of blood poisoning or pneumonia they picked up in US hospitals.

UK: Debate grows over who should be called a 'nurse'

23 February 2010: Calls to protect the title “nurse” have sparked a debate over whether it would protect the public or simply act as a way for the nursing profession to raise its status. Nursing Times understands concerns also stem from the fact registered nurses make more autonomous decisions than some others who call themselves nurses. This has raised questions over whether people such as nursery nurses and veterinary nurses should be stripped of their titles.

UK: Why Angela Rippon says nurses can't cope with dementia patients like her mother

22 February 2010: When her mother was ill in hospital last year, Angela Rippon spent the first ten minutes of every visit making sure she apologised to the nursing staff. ‘My mother had had dementia for five years, and was going through a phase of being extremely aggressive and angry,’ the veteran broadcaster explains. ‘She was often very rude to the young nurses, which was quite distressing for them.'

US: Nursing workforce issues: An expanded role for nurse practitioners, Calif. Doctors sue for supervision of nurse anesthetists

22 February 2010: "Nursing leaders say large numbers of [nurse] practitioners ... will be needed to fill gaps in primary care left by an increasing shortage of doctors, a problem that would intensify if Congress extends health insurance to millions more Americans," Kaiser Health News reports.

US: Callen-Lorde offers sensitive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender healthcare

22 February 2010: One of the first questions nurses ask patients who visit Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City is which gender they would like to be identified by. It’s not a question posed by nurses in mainstream hospitals, nor is it a query incorporated into nursing school curriculum, but at New York City’s premiere lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) clinic, it’s the first of many measures the nursing staff takes to ensure patients receive the utmost in care and support.

US: IOM report declares high blood pressure a neglected disease

22 February 2010: Public health officials and health care providers need to step up their efforts to reduce Americans' increasing rates of high blood pressure and better treat those with the condition, which triggers more than one-third of heart attacks and almost half of heart failures in the United States each year, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

One in 4 nurses quit training

21 February 2010: One in four student nurses drop out of their courses and leave the NHS - wasting £100million of taxpayers' money and causing a looming recruitment shortage.

INDIA: Bail out nursing stream, banks told

19 February 2010: The Indian Nursing Council has stepped in at a time when nursing admissions are declining and banks refusing to provide loans for nursing students. The council has written to banks requesting them to help out students.

INDIA: Married women allowed to join nursing courses

19 February 2010: An abysmally shameful ratio of one nurse for every 1,100 people in India has finally made the health ministry sit up. With the country facing an acute shortage of trained nurses, the ministry has now decided to let married women get admission to nursing courses.

AFRICA: Most maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could be avoided

18 February 2010: More than 500,000 women die each year worldwide due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. Half of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa. A research team from the King Juan Carlos University (URJC) in Madrid says these women are not dying as a result of any illness, but rather from a lack of basic healthcare measures.

US: University Hospital earns elite nursing designation

17 February 2010: The nursing staff at University Hospital has been honored by the American Nurses Credentialing Center with Magnet status, a symbol of excellence in the field. The news sent a wave of excitement through the staff. It was a day they’ve worked toward for the past six years.

US: Hormone could help those with autism

17 February 2010: A nasal spray containing a hormone that makes women more maternal and men less shy may be able to help those with autism make eye contact and interact better with others. A study involving 13 adults with autism found that when they inhaled the hormone oxytocin they scored significantly better on a test that involved recognising faces and performed much better in a game that involved tossing a ball with other people.

UK: British TV presenter admits mercy killing of lover

17 February 2010: A veteran British television and radio presenter is being investigated by police after he admitted smothering to death an ex-lover who had AIDS several decades ago. "In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, 'There's nothing we can do', and he was in terrible, terrible pain," he said on the show, broadcast on Monday. "I said to the doctor, 'Leave me just for a bit' and he went away.

US: Breast cancer patients turn to supplements

16 February 2010: Breast cancer survivors are turning to alternative therapies like supplements and vitamins to ease recovery, but researchers say they may be making uninformed choices.

US: Health workers often decline TB treatment

16 February 2010: Hospital and nursing-home employees who are infected with latent tuberculosis may often decline drug therapy to prevent the disease from becoming active, a new study suggests.

US: Alternative treatments offer options for cancer patients

15 February 2010: Although the trauma of experiencing breast cancer frequently lasts with survivors, an MSU professor has found complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, can alleviate further sickness. Gwen Wyatt, a professor in the MSU College of Nursing and principal investigator, published an article in the January-February edition of Nursing Research describing her five-year study of alternative therapies.

Local News

WEEK COMMENCING 20 FEBRUARY 2010

Transparency is good medicine

23 February 2010: Balance is crucial in medical funding. At certain levels, funding of consumer health groups by drug companies is a good thing. The money, after all, has to come from somewhere. As well, private investment removes some of the burden from taxpayers who would otherwise be hit up for health group funding.

Drug-makers give health groups millions

23 February 2010: Patient support groups and doctors are receiving millions of dollars a year from pharmaceutical companies under a grant system that is raising questions about their independence.

Mental health too costly to ignore

23 February 2010: If the Australian of the Year award gives those on whom it is bestowed an opportunity for promoting the cause closest to their heart, Professor Patrick McGorry cannot be blamed for making the most of it. As director of Orygen Youth Health, the University of Melbourne psychiatrist knows the grim statistics well: 75 per cent of mental health problems will appear by the age of 25, with the onset apparently getting earlier and illness rates climbing.

Mixed response to McGorry's appeal for more funding

23 February 2010: Patrick McGorry's call for more funding for adolescent mental health services has received mixed reviews from others in the sector, who mostly say more money should be directed towards prevention.

Doctors' plan would save $15 a script

23 February 2010: Allowing doctors to have chemists in their surgeries could drive down generic medicine prices by $15 a script. The Australian Medical Association wants to break the pharmacy monopoly attributed to cutting competition and increasing the cost of generic medicine.

Rudd faces defeat on health rebates

23 February 2010: A plan to means test the 30 per cent private health fund rebate looks set to be defeated in the Senate. The defeat would leave the Rudd Government with a $1.9 billion hole in its budget and giving it a trigger for a double dissolution election.

Private health? It's enough to make you sick

22 February 2010: There is not much point in starving the health system of funding to minimise taxes if it shifts the burden from citizens as taxpayers by creating an even bigger burden for them as consumers. The debate is seldom framed in this way because the recently released 2010 intergenerational report, the Rudd government's first, is set up to ask only about budgetary costs of health, not the total cost.

Myozyme to be subsidised by Government

22 February 2010: A medication used in the treatment of a rare enzyme deficiency disorder will be fully subsidised by the Federal Government despite the drug's failure to be accepted for PBS listing. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced that the Government would provide $4.2 million over four years to fully subsidise Myozyme (alglucosidase alpha), used in the treatment of Infantile-onset Pompe disease, under its Life Saving Drugs Program.

Hopes calorie count will spark food war

22 February 2010: Health authorities hope a mandatory calorie count label on fast food will spark a fat-busting war among retailers as consumers switch to healthier options. The Victorian government is set to enter into discussions with the fast food industry over plans to force outlets to disclose the calorie content in fatty and sugar-laden foods.

'Phony' health website angers Dutton

22 February 2010: The federal opposition has called for an inquiry into claims health department staff were ordered to log onto a government website in order to generate additional "hits".

No pledge on extra funding

23 February 2010:The state and federal governments have reaffirmed their commitment to tackling the diabetes epidemic in the west, but fell short of committing to additional funding.

Greens private health insurance proposal to break deadlock, deliver $145m for mental health

22 February 2010: The Greens will propose a compromise on private health insurance today that offers a way to break the senate deadlock and deliver over a billion dollars to public hospitals and $145 million for specific mental health funding.

Government to reintroduce health plan

22 February 2010: The independent Senator Nick Xenophon says that the Federal Government's attempt to make healthcare reform the battleground for the next election could backfire badly. Today the Government is reintroducing into the Senate its plan to means test the private health insurance rebate. The Government is also promising it will soon reveal the hospital reform blueprint that Kevin Rudd promised before the last election.

Numbers change for e-health identifier

22 February 2010: Technical details released to help software developers incorporate new Healthcare Identifiers into their products suggest an unanticipated shift in messaging protocol from the commonly-used Health Level 7 version 2 to the next-generation standard, HL7 version 3.

Rediscovering the lost years: Early intervention pain management

22 February 2010: By the time most patients arrive at a tertiary pain management clinic, such as the Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre where I practice, they have already spent years living with pain. As the President of the Australian Pain Society I also meet many people living with pain.

McGorry urges mental health overhaul

22 February 2010: The Australian of the Year, Patrick McGorry, has called for a massive overhaul of the mental health system to direct funds away from acute hospital services to more community-based care.

Defeat of health rebate to provide early election trigger

22 February 2010: The federal government appears likely to achieve a trigger for a double-dissolution with the defeat of its private health insurance rebate bill.

Drug company 'knew of diabetes pill risk'

22 February 2010: Australian authorities are closely monitoring a common diabetes drug after allegations its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, knew of heart attack risks years before evidence of a link became public.

Greens' last-ditch push for health cash

22 February 2010: A last-minute attempt by the Greens to push a private health insurance rebate bill through in return for mental health funding appears to have failed, after the Coalition and cross-bench senators said they would vote against the bill, regardless.

Neal promise 'followed by hubby's phone call'

22  February 2010: The day after MP Belinda Neal allegedly offered to help get medical favours for a Labor party member whose vote she needed, her husband and MP John Della Bosca rang the New South Wales health chief asking for her assistance. Ms Picone is believed to have told Mr Della Bosca to take the matter through the proper formal channels.

Major parties have wrong focus on health policies

22 February 2010: While the major parties clash over whether South Australia should get a new Royal Adelaide Hospital or a rebuilt one, experts say broader health policies are more important issues. In the lead-up to March 20, The Advertiser  asked peak health representatives to nominate their priorities for a future State Government.

Curiouser and curiouser

21 February 2010: Midway through last year I was head-hunted by the federal Department of Health and Ageing to write speeches for their ministers – a surprise as I had no experience or qualifications. As far as the department was aware, my limited skills were derived from reviewing video games for The Canberra Times. Perplexed and amused, I dusted off the suit and attended my one and only interview. ''I'll be writing speeches for who?'' ''Minister Roxon,'' answered my interviewer. ''And you're going to pay me how much?'' ''Eighty thousand a year. Will that be enough?''

Sick system offers PM healthy trigger for double dissolution

21 February 21, 2010: If voters have cooled on the issue of climate change since the 2007 election, health has, if anything, intensified as one of their big concerns – especially in NSW.

More patients able to donate organs after death under new plan

20 February 2010: More patients will be able to donate organs after death under a new plan set to be introduced into WA hospitals this year. The move is expected to increase the state's transplant rate by 10 to 15 per cent, saving the lives of more seriously ill people.

Bid to prevent binge drinking

20 February 2010: Teenagers on the Northern Rivers will be helped to avoid the dangers of binge drinking, thanks to a $250,000 grant to Byron Youth Service.

$4m palliative care pledge for North Tas

20 February 2010: Palliative care won a $4 million boost yesterday, with a surprise Northern election promise from Labor that keeps health as the top issue for Bass in the lead-up to the March 20 election. The new money is not tied to palliative beds at Calvary Health Care and is ongoing.

Shared steps to a robust performance: teamwork

20 February 2010: Clinical governance requires that patients receive the best possible care. It recognises the importance of teams, organisations and systems in healthcare, rather than individual health professionals working in isolation. But it's hard to teach teamwork. That's why I have worked with Ted Stewart-Wynne at Royal Perth Hospital to get what may be Australia's first student training ward up and running by April. The idea is to enable students from key areas --medical, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy and physiotherapy – to work together in a real-world setting.

Healers can always ask Y: generation Y

20 February 2010: Medicine and nursing are advertised as good career options and stepping stones to exciting new pathways. Are there any sick people on these pathways? Our goal should be to sway students into careers grounded in the ethos of healing. We should be honest and provide maximum information on the professional and lifestyle requisites of all professions, so students can make informed choices.

Avoid meltdown in a heatwave: keeping cool and staying safe

20 February 2010: It's no news to Australians who've sweated through heatwaves or sweltered in humid tropical downpours that the thermostat has been set uncomfortably high this summer. And the Australian Bureau of Meteorology predicts ever hotter scorchers in the years ahead.

State's dental care in decay

20 February 2010: South Australia Dental Service chief Martin Dooland has issued a dire warning about the future of public dental care. In a letter to the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service obtained by The Advertiser , he writes: South Australians are waiting up to five years for public dental care.

I'll get you best deals, Rann tells the voters

20 February 2010: Mike Rann has told voters on the eve of the South Australian election campaign he should be returned to power because he can get the best federal deals from Canberra, thanks to his good mate Kevin Rudd. His comments came as the government's proposed controversial $1.7 billion city hospital was put back on to the election agenda.

Full-fee students may miss out on internships

20 February 2010: Medical schools have warned a $1.6 billion deal by Australian governments to support clinical training -- including a guarantee of an intern place for medical and nursing graduates -- could blow a hole in their finances by excluding overseas fee-paying students. The deal, struck at a recent meeting of Australia's health ministers in Melbourne, gives certainty to thousands of medical and nursing students, many of whom feared the huge increases in student intakes meant there would be too few senior staff in hospitals to train them properly.

Toddler in agony for four days with mouth infection

20 February 2010: A toddler suffering a mouth infection so severe it later required surgery and teeth removal was given only Panadol while the infection worsened at a Sydney hospital.

Why nuclear energy struggles to get private sector funds

20 February 2010: A recent German epidemiological study found that the risk of leukaemia in children under five years old was doubled when the child lived within five kilometres of a nuclear power plant.

Most surgical deaths in Victoria are elderly patients

19 February 2010: If you're relatively young and healthy, the dangers of surgery may have been exaggerated. An audit of surgical deaths in Victorian hospitals has found that the great majority involved old patients with existing acute health problems.

Long road to e-health record rollout

19 February 2010: An updated business case for a national e-health record rollout is being prepared for the Council of Australian Governments, but there is no guarantee the project will be considered this year.

Snowdon: 83 new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander outreach workers to be placed around the nation

19 February 2010: National efforts to close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation received a boost today with the announcement of 83 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Worker placements across Australia.

Roxon: PHI membership defies predictions - Legislation in Senate on Monday

19 February 2010: Yet more evidence has been released today that proves the Opposition got it wrong when they predicted a huge drop in private health insurance (PHI) membership. Instead, the latest PHI membership figures released today reveal that the number of Australians taking out cover continues to grow.

Chiropractic solution to stressed Coffs hospital

19 February 2010: NSW chiropractors have offered to help improve the performance of Coffs Harbour Base Hospital’s emergency department through a proposed new health care model, to be outlined next week. The Chiropractors’ Association of Australia (NSW) (CAANSW) will discuss a ground-breaking plan to integrate chiropractic services into NSW Public Hospitals.

Health insurance costs on the rise

19 February 2010: Health premiums are set to increase by as much as seven per cent this year, it has been revealed.

Labor digs in for health election

19 February 2010: Climate change has slid down the order of election priorities with the government to dedicate next week in Parliament to gaining a double dissolution trigger on health.

GP ire over MBS item uncertainty

18 February 2010: Lack of clarity from Medicare over circumstances in which to bill longer consults has forced one GP to complain to the Commonwealth ombudsman, angry at the Catch-22 situation he says he has been pushed into.

Tebbutt: Health fix needs a lot more than local boards

18 February 2010: The idea that appointing local boards to run public hospitals will fix the health system shows a failure to understand the health reform this nation needs.

Project to develop accreditation standards and criteria for courses leading to re-entry to the register for nurses and midwives

19 February 2010: The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council is undertaking a project to develop accreditation standards and criteria for courses leading to re-entry to the register for nurses and midwives. The development of these accreditation standards and criteria will complement the work already completed in the development of national standards and criteria for the accreditation of nursing and midwifery courses leading to registration, enrolment, endorsement and authorisation in Australia. The closing date for feedback is Friday 19 March 2010. Go to ANMC and click on What's New.

'Dob in' laws target hospital staff high on booze and drugs

19 February 2010: Queensland hospitals have been forced to increase camera surveillance and restrict access to medicine cabinets to stop staff stealing drugs. Laws forcing medical staff to dob in drug or alcohol-impaired staff will also be introduced to help combat the problem.

Roxon takes tough line over health fund premium rises

19 February 2010: The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, is believed to have knocked back the initial bids of 17 health funds for premium increases, but warned customers not to expect good news.

Roxon grilled over proposed midwife changes

19 February 2010: The Federal Government has been grilled at its latest community cabinet meeting over its proposed changes for midwives and maternity services. The Government wants to make midwifery services eligible for Medicare rebates, but only if homebirth midwives work in consultation with a doctor.

Minister shows her unhealthy obsession

19 February 2010: Health Minister Nicola Roxon speaks of the private health insurance industry, which she regulates, as though it were populated by blood-sucking demons. Absent her firm and all-too-visible hand, "health companies would have free reign to gouge consumers for as much as they liked", she says.

Ambulance drivers paid as babysitters

19 February 2010: The state's hospitals have become so full nearly 100,000 ill and injured people rushed to emergency departments by ambulance last year were forced to wait up to an hour to be seen. At Newcastle's Mater Hospital late last year, our picture shows overworked paramedics waiting with them, babysitting the patients on collapsible trolleys in hospital corridors until they can be seen by staff.

Funding to tackle binge drinking in SA

18 February 2010:  Binge drinking among African youths in Adelaide will be tackled with money provided by the Federal Government. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon today announced almost $300,000 in funding for two community-based projects to tackle alcohol abuse in South Australia.

Hundreds protest homebirth restrictions

18 February 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is stripping away a woman's right to have her baby at home, protesters around the country have been told. Hundreds of people have come together across Australia at 13 simultaneous rallies to protest against the government's planned overhaul of maternity care.

New medical centre the future of health care

18 February 2010: Guests travelled from Israel, Melbourne and State Opposition front benches for the official opening of a new Coffs Harbour medical centre yesterday. Jillian Skinner, Shadow Minister for Health and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in NSW, unveiled the plaque to open the Park Beach Family Practice.

Australian Greens call for action on ADHD

18th February 2010: Senator Rachel Siewert has called for a review of the use of ADHD medication following publication of a report from the University of Western Australia that suggests the use of stimulant medication for children not only fails to help them academically but may also harm them physically.

Novelty condoms hit the street

18 February 2010: Sex product companies are being asked to supply the State Government with coloured, flavoured, ribbed and studded condoms for handing out to prostitutes. NSW Health asked suppliers to quote prices for novelty condoms in its latest tender to keep up with the sex industry's preferred tools of the trade.

Memo to COAG: why primary health care reform should top the agenda

17 February 2010: While Tony Abbott and the media’s enduring focus on things that can be relatively easily measured, like surgical waiting lists and emergency department waiting times, are keeping hospitals in the spotlight, many are wishing that community-based health services could generate a similar level of attention.

Inner City Housing Project making long-term progress with Sydney's roughsleepers

17 February 2010: The Daily Telegraph newspaper today has a story on a Mission Australia initiative that is delivering significant results in the lives of mentally ill homeless people and for the broader community. The Inner City Housing Program (ICHP) is response to the challenges faced by mentally ill people who sleep rough in Sydney’s inner city.

Better life in a house of hope

17 February 2010: It is a double-storey terrace, like many others on inner city streets. It looks like any share house occupied by three men. Yet what the facade doesn't reveal are the hardships of these men who only months ago yearned to have four walls and a roof - a place to call home.

National Forum on Safety and Quality in Health Care

The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), in collaboration with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and ACT Health, will host the National Forum on Safety and Quality in Health Care at the National Convention Centre, Canberra, 25-27 October 2010.

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