International News

UK: Gene swap fights disease

16 April 2010: UK scientists announce a new artificial reproduction method that could prevent inherited diseases by swapping DNA from two human eggs.

US: 'Overuse' of antibiotics endangering health, Senate told

15 April 2010: Medical health professionals and public health experts in the United States say they are increasingly concerned by the routine use of human antibiotics on farms. They say the use of the drugs in the food and water of food animals results in antibiotic-resistant diseases in humans that cause extended hospital stays and increased health care costs.

US: The new doctors in the house

15 April 2010: Nightingales are soaring. Gone are the days when medical etiquette had nurses standing at attention when doctors entered the room or silently bowing their white-capped heads when their own experience called a physician into question. Nurses have broken the bounds of their crisp, white aprons to assume substantial authority. Witness today's nurse practitioner addressing the critical shortage of primary-care physicians in the United States and other developed countries. These registered nurses, armed with advanced degrees in specialized areas like pediatrics, women's health, or adult disease management, care for a wide range of common medical conditions and wield a prescription pen with virtually the same independence as any M.D. 

US: Doctors, nurses clash over plan to expand role of nurse practitioners

15 April 2010: More than half of all U.S. states are mulling the possibility of expanding the professional role of nurse practitioners as a primary care physician shortage looms, according to recent news reports. Physicians are generally opposed to the plan, and the American Medical Association has dispatched a number of doctors to state legislatures across the country to argue against the bigger role for nurses.

US: Expanding roles of nurse practitioners stir controversy

14 April 2010: As the reality of the nation's shortage of primary-care physicians sinks in, a growing number of states are looking beyond the daunting task of finding more physicians and considering the roles of other types of caregivers. To be exact, 28 states are considering expanding the role of nurse practitioners to fill the void left by physician shortages, reports the Associated Press. But while advanced-degree nurses, who claim they've long been undervalued, cheer the opportunity, critics, including the American Medical Association, caution that broadening nurses' authority could pose a danger to patients.

UK: Newcastle University scientists creating three-parent embryo

15 April 2010: Babies with three biological parents could be conceived within three years after research that could stop children from inheriting severe diseases. Scientists at Newcastle University in Britain have grown human embryos after merging DNA from two fertilised eggs, with a technique that could soon be used to prevent serious genetic disorders.

US: Depressed adults smoke more

15 April 2010: Adults who suffer from depression are twice as likely to smoke and also smoke more heavily than adults who are not depressed, a study released today shows. Forty-three per cent of all adults aged 20 and older who suffer from depression smoked cigarettes, compared with 22 per cent of adults who were not depressed, data compiled by the US National Centre for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention show.

US: Scorpion venom provides pancreatitis clues

10 April  2010: A Brazilian scorpion has provided researchers at East Carolina University and N.C. State University an insight into venom’s effects on the ability of certain cells to release critical components. The findings may prove useful in understanding diseases like pancreatitis or in targeted drug delivery.

Local News

WEEK COMMENCING 10 APRIL 2010

Opinion: Robbing Peter to pay Paul's doctor

16 April 12010: No one would dispute that health reform is difficult. But that is not why the commonwealth government's proposals are inadequate. Rather, it is because they do not say, in an honest and transparent way, how we will pay for health care in the long run, how it will be provided, and within what constraints.

PM to resist calls for more health funds

16 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is resisting state demands to put more money on the table for his national health and hospitals reforms. NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is reportedly set to seek a further $500 million before her state will agree to the overhaul at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on April 19.

Rudd takes aim at Brumby

16 April 2010: Kevin Rudd has ruled out extending the deadline for reaching agreement on his health and hospitals reform plan, saying the people have had ''a gutful'' of squabbling.

Govt eyes primary health care takeover

16 April 2010: The federal government is prepared to take on complete funding of the nation's primary care services in a move that health professionals say could transform the mental health system.

MRI push heats up

16 April 2010: Australia's top radiologist has backed calls for the south-west to get its own MRI licence, which would enable radiotherapy to be done locally. Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Radiologists president Matthew Andrews said the population base in south-west Victoria was large enough to support a licence grant and was concerned the process had been caught up in red tape.

Victoria's claim to have best hospitals disputed

15 April 2010: Victoria's Premier John Brumby is digging his heels in against the Prime Minister's hospital plan saying it will drag his state's hospitals down. The Premier is not alone in boasting that Victoria's case mix system has produced the best and most efficient health system in the country. But several health experts are now saying that official comparisons don't support that view.

Brumby's numbers don't add up

15 April 2010: If you’re confused by the claim and counter-claims of the health reform debate, you’re not alone. Understanding the way our public hospitals are funded is far from easy.

Rudd wants all or nothing on health plan

15 April 2010: Kevin Rudd is continuing to demand an all-or-nothing deal when he meets state and territory leaders next week, refusing to consider an extension of his deadline. Victorian Premier John Brumby, the most trenchant critic of the prime minister's health and hospital reform plan, has talked up the prospect of an "in-principle" agreement when leaders meet on Monday.

Roxon asked to explain 'false' e-health claims

15 April 2010: Queensland Liberal Senator Sue Boyce has demanded an explanation from Health Minister Nicola Roxon over "false and wildly optimistic" information about the readiness of the Rudd Government's national Healthcare Identifiers service, which is due to start on July 1.

Health council backs primary health networks

15 April 2010: The Greater Western Area Health Advisory Council says it is very enthusiastic about the Federal Government's plan to introduce Primary Health Care Organisations across Australia.

Snowdon: Indigenous health project officers placed in general practices across Australia

14 April 2010: The Rudd Government has allocated more than 80 Indigenous Health Project Officers to general practices across the nation to help close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Snowdon: Report helps shape first national male health policy

14 April 2010: The stereotype of the indestructible Aussie male has been challenged in a new report that reveals men living outside major cities have worse health outcomes than men in urban areas. In Melbourne today, Indigenous Health and Rural and Regional Health Minister, Warren Snowdon, launched A Snapshot of Men’s Health in Regional and Remote Australia, at a meeting with men’s health organisation, Andrology Australia.

Depression woes in the workplace

No date: Recent studies by Gallup have revealed that better employee engagement means better health too. "Engaged people feel less stress, and the stress they do feel is offset by a lot more happiness and enjoyment and interest," said James K. Harter, Gallup's chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing and co-author of 12: The Elements of Great Managing.

Kevin Rudd says he will go to referendum on health plan

15 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has repeated his threat to go to a referendum at the next election if he can't get agreement on his health plan at Monday's Council of Australian Governments meeting. Victoria remains the major hold-out but Mr Rudd disputed whether its state health system was as good as Premier John Brumby claimed.

Rudd says he will seek mandate on health

15 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has repeated his threat to go to a referendum at the next election if he can't get agreement on his health plan at Monday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.

Decoding a deadly cancer

15 April 2010: Serious money and the largest biomedical research initiative since the Human Genome Project is placing humanity on the brink of breakthrough solutions in cancer research. The Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative is the Australian project arm of an association of research organisations in 11 countries, known as the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Their collective aim is to catalogue 25,000 full genomes of the 50 most common types of cancer and make the data freely available online.

Focus on health reform, Keneally urges

15 April 2010: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has urged her state and territory counterparts – and the prime minister – not to abandon hospital reform should the Federal Government's proposal flop next week.

Extra money on offer as Rudd and State Premiers split on health reform

15 April 2010: Even more money will be used to lure premiers to sign up to health reform as the rift between premiers and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deepens. Mr Rudd has already announced $3 billion of sweeteners, but huge cutbacks to the drug subsidy scheme, a possible rise in the tobacco tax, plus cutbacks in other departments, has given him a huge kitty to spend on health in next month's Budget.

Brumby's resolve robs Rudd of a 'clean victory' on health – Michelle Grattan

14 April 2010: When John Brumby fronted the National Press Club today, his rhetoric was as tough as flint. There is no way, the Victorian premier declared, that he’ll will be signing up on Monday to Kevin Rudd’s national hospital reform plan as it stands.

Health benefit lost in smoke and mirrors

14 April 2010: Spin seems to be essential to 21st-century politics, and nothing has been spun more than the Rudd-Roxon plan for public hospitals. If you believe the hype, all of the hospitals' problems come from the incompetent state governments. They will be fixed by an all-knowing Commonwealth by juggling some money. But it still needs the states to run the hospitals. (Dr John Deeble was principal adviser to the Whitlam and Hawke governments on the introduction of Medibank and Medicare.)

E-health record still too unsexy for COAG?

14 April 2010: Health Minister Nicola Roxon's office has refused to say whether it will take the business case for an individual electronic health record (IEHR) to the Council of Australian Government (COAG) meeting on Monday.

Smoking is to blame: Doctor

14 April 2010: The president of the state’s Australian Medical Association believes Port Augusta residents should not link the city’s high lung cancer rates with emissions from the power station. Instead, Dr Andrew Lavender said he was confident smoking was to blame for the cancer.

Nurses face cuts

14 April 2010: Nurses at the Port Augusta and Quorn hospitals are likely to be those feeling the impact of changes to staffing rosters enforced by the health department, the South Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) state president Dr Andrew Lavender says.

How much will a healthy nation cost?

14 April 2010: What with getting the states onside and finding funds for new policy proposals, Kevin Rudd's healthcare reforms are getting more costly by the day. The process of healthcare reform says a lot about the way policy has been approached by this government. Under former state government bureaucrat Kevin Rudd, most policies have started with an inquiry, then moved to a policy proposal … and then stalled for a lack of political willpower.

Who gets the most health funding? Toorak or Tennant Creek?

14 April 2010: Do Australians really think we should spend more on the health care of a Toorak resident than an Aboriginal child from Tennant Creek? That’s one of the questions raised in the piece below by Dr Richard Di Natale, a public health physician with a special interest in the drug and alcohol sector, and Lead Senate Candidate, Australian Greens (Vic).

Brumby defiant over Rudd's health plan

14 April 2010: Victorian Premier John Brumby remains defiantly opposed to Kevin Rudd's health and hospital reform plan, insisting he "cannot and will not" support the changes.

Health plan gets the spin treatment

14 April 2010: The Rudd government has only itself to blame if the phased release of its health plans complicated the process of winning states' support. It worked as a ploy to maximise coverage of each funding announcement, but left premiers demanding more detail and the opposition and media portraying each instalment as the latest bid for state support.

McGorry criticises Rudd health plan

14 April 2010: Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry has criticised the federal government's hospital plan, saying the key area of mental health has been ignored.

Liverpool. $390m hospital near completion

14 April 2010: The $390 million redevelopment of Liverpool Hospital currently underway will provide state-of-the-art facilities and meet the healthcare needs of the state’s fastest growing regions, with a population expected to grow to one million by 2016.

Rural men have more health risks: report

13 April 2010: Men living in rural and remote parts of Australia are more likely than city slickers to have chronic health conditions, a new report shows. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's snapshot of men's health in regional Australia, released on Wednesday, found this group was also more exposed to health risk factors than their urban counterparts.

Shaky finances undermine sector

13 April 2010: Aged-care providers say the Rudd government's $739 million injection into the sector will fail to create the number of new places needed, warning they are losing $13 a day on every bed under the existing funding formula.

Small step when giant leap needed

13 April 2010: Paul Sadler, chief executive of Presbyterian Aged Care, who has worked in the sector for 20 years, said he was "pleased" with Kevin Rudd's $739 million, four-year, aged-care plan, which would for the first time transfer full responsibility for aged care, including home and community care, from the states to the commonwealth.

More ins than outs in Kevin Rudd plan

13 April 2010: Kevin Rudd's plan for "activity-based" funding in the health system could lead to hundreds of thousands of extra patients being admitted to hospital each year, presenting new opportunities for cost-shifting and overcharging. Kathy Eagar, from the Centre for Health Service Development, predicted yesterday an activity-based model would lead to much higher rates of inpatient admissions for same-day procedures.

Bloated bureaucracies bad for health

13 April 2010: You find them here, you find them there, you find them everywhere: the bureaucrats of the Australian health system. The commonwealth definitely has 4400 of them, NSW probably has 30,000 of them and the other states and territories have lesser numbers. In total there are probably about 75,000 in the public hospitals and health system. In releasing his health reform plan, Kevin Rudd has promised there will be no net increase in the number of bureaucrats. In fact, if Rudd's plans are to succeed, what we need are more nurses and doctors and fewer bureaucrats.

Work yet to start on e-health identifier

13 April 2010: Six months after assuring a Senate committee that the National E-Health Transition Authority was working with primary care software firms over the proposed national Healthcare Identifier system, the federal Health Department has conceded work is yet to begin.

Rudd health plan a dud deal

13 April 2010: Patients waiting longer than recommended for elective surgery will get treated in a private hospital at taxpayers' expense under a radical plan by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to clear the nation's hospital waiting lists.

States talk health ahead of COAG meeting

13 April 2010: State governments want the commonwealth to consider pooling their health funds before they agree to an overhaul of the system.

Huge Australian population growth could have grave health consequences

13 April 2010: Super-sizing Australia's population may have grave consequences on our health, boosting rates of obesity, asthma and depression, a new study warns. The findings, published online in the Medical Journal of Australia, come amid a debate on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's call for a "Big Australia".

Fewer teeth means higher risk of heart disease: study

13 April 2010: People with dented smiles run a far greater risk of dying of heart disease than those who still have all their pearly whites, a Swedish researcher has found. "Cardiovascular disease and in particular coronary heart disease is closely related to the number of teeth" that a person has left, Anders Holmlund told AFP, explaining the results of a Swedish study to be published in the Journal of Periodontology.

Government announcement is a $700 million band-aid

The Australian Nursing Federation welcomes a much needed policy focus on aged care but is disappointed with the government’s first aged care announcement which focuses on financial initiatives for state governments and ignores the more crucial issues facing the sector. More beds without nursing staff will only increase the pressure on residents and those who care for them.

Health reform: Keneally raps change for change's sake

12 April 2010: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally says the nation's health system is not sustainable but she will only support the federal government's health reform plan if it advantages her state.

Savage critique of “Rudd Health System Intervention” from leading health economist

12 April 2010: Prominent health economist Professor Jeff Richardson has not been at all impressed by the Rudd Government’s hospital reform plans and has released “Three Essays in Disagreement with the Rudd Health System Intervention” which you can download here.

AMA backs PM’s plan on patient waiting times

12 April 2010: The Australian Medical Association has backed a $500 million federal government plan aimed at cutting emergency department patient waiting times to no more than four hours.

Govt reveals final health reform offer

12 April 2010: The federal government has delivered its final health blueprint to the states and territories with one last sweetener – an extra $650 million to cut elective surgery waiting times. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd presented the 95-page document to premiers on Monday afternoon, just hours after unveiling the second-last piece of his health reform puzzle. That was an additional $739 million for aged care.

PM Rudd says no GST rise for health

12 April 2010: The GST rate will not be increased to pay for an overhaul of the national health system, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

Nursing homes lukewarm on Rudd's $739m aged care plan

12 April 2010: Nursing home operators warned today that Kevin Rudd's $739 million injection into the aged care industry will not solve its long-term problems and will fail to address the shortage of places. Rod Young, chief executive of the Aged Care Association of Australia, welcomed the Prime Minister's package but said it had not addressed indexation of payments to nursing homes, workforce shortages and capital constraints.

Rudd media release: Building an Australian aged care system: Increasing the capacity of the aged care system

12 April 2010: The supply of aged care places needs to continue to grow to meet increased demand. But in recent years there has been a downturn in construction activity in the residential sector and a lack of suitable applications from qualified aged care providers to be able to allocate all the new residential aged care places the Government has made available.

Rudd media release: Building an Australian aged care system: Improving consumer focus and protection in aged care

12 April 2010: The Rudd Government will invest $25 million to improve consumer focus and strengthen protections for residents of aged care as part of its improvements to aged care services to better support older Australians. Recipients of aged care services are amongst the most frail and vulnerable people in our society. These reforms mean that allegation of poor quality care or abuse will be investigated and acted upon more quickly, and protections for residents' life savings held in the form of accommodation bonds will be strengthened.

Rudd media release: More support for older Australians in the National Health and Hospitals Network

12 April 2010: The Rudd Government will invest $739 million in aged care to better support older Australians.

This investment will support around 5,000 aged care places or beds, and help to end the blame game that hurts hospitals and aged care services.

Inquest probes nursing home deaths

12 April 2010: A Melbourne nursing home failed to tell a man's family he was ill with gastro and staff were reluctant to call an ambulance when he was "close to death", his daughter has told an inquest. The evidence came on the first day of an inquest into the deaths of five elderly people at Camberwell's Broughton Hall nursing home following a gastro outbreak in April, 2007.

States seek details on health plan

12 April 2010: The states are holding out for more information from Kevin Rudd before committing to his $50 billion hospital reform blueprint, despite his release of a $500 million plan to halve emergency department waiting times to no more than four hours.

AMA backs PM’s plan on patient waiting times

12 April 2010 : The Australian Medical Association has backed a $500 million federal government plan aimed at cutting emergency department patient waiting times to no more than four hours.

PM to unveil $739m aged care plan

12 April 2010: Ageing Minister Justine Elliot will not say whether new funding for aged care is contingent on the states signing up to the federal government's wider health reform plan. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will unveil a $739 million plan for a federal takeover of aged care on Monday.

When it comes to cancer, why not me?

12 April 2010: Breast cancer is, for sufferers, for terrified families, for occasionally helpless medical professionals, a tragedy, if not one that always has an unhappy ending. And while the case of Martina Navratilova – who announced last week that she is about to undergo treatment for the illness – is upsetting for all concerned, what was really striking about her statement was the reaction: ''The day I was told I had breast cancer was my own personal 9/11. I was completely shocked … This just goes to show no matter how much you watch what you eat or exercise, you never know.''

Keneally threatens to block Rudd's takeover proposal

12 April 2010: The Premier, Kristina Keneally, is telling people behind closed doors that she will scuttle Kevin Rudd's health and hospitals reform plan if the demands of NSW are not met.

Health study denied despite cancer cluster

12 April 2010: Five residents around a single block in Singleton have been struck with brain tumours, prompting fears that a cancer cluster has erupted in the heavily polluted mining town.

Learning to swim in rivers, lakes will save lives: Gould

12 April 2010: The Australian swimming legend Shane Gould says secondary school swimming lessons should take place in natural environments instead of the local public pool, to reduce the incidence of people drowning in lakes and rivers.

The shape of things: women's cups runneth over

12 April 2010: As a nation we are getting bigger all over, but the number of ''average-sized'' women with above average bust lines has ballooned, with the most common bra cup size increasing from a B to a DD in the past 50 years.

Emergency funding welcome, but extra hospital beds key: doctors

11 April  2010: Doctors say federal Labor's promise of an extra $500 million to cut waiting times in emergency departments will only work if there is also a boost in hospital beds.

Some required reading for those wanting safer health care

11 April 2010: Amongst the flood of comment and discussion on the Federal Government’s health care reform proposals, I’ve heard very little mention of what it might all mean for  quality and safety of care. It’s an issue that’s too important for it not to be on the agenda. Croakey’s North American correspondent, Dr Lesley Russell, says there is evidence from the US to show that relatively simple measures can make a big difference, in saving both lives and health care dollars.

Rudd promises to halve waiting times

11 April 2010: Australians would wait no more than four hours for medical attention in hospital emergency departments under an ambitious bid by the federal government to halve existing waiting periods. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will today announce a $500 million injection for emergency departments, but only if the states sign up to his health reform plan, News Ltd and Fairfax newspapers say.

PM to slash patient delays

11 April 2010: A four-hour time limit will be placed on treating people in Australian hospital emergency wards, under a $500 million plan to end waits of more than eight hours for one in three patients. Hospital emergency rooms will also get a makeover in the May Budget allowing them to be renovated and re-equipped.

She's the super nurse who saves millions

11 April 2010: Meet the super nurse who saves the NSW Department of Health $1.5million a year by helping to keep our elderly out of hospital. Debbie Deasey is a nurse practitioner specialising in aged care and treating chronic illnesses who visits patients at their homes.

Horror rooms in rundown hospital

11 April 2010: Relatives of critically ill patients at one of Sydney's biggest hospitals are being housed in a rundown building infested with rats and cockroaches and surrounded by smashed bottles and rubbish.

Unsafe practice risk to infants

11 April 2010: Private hospitals are flouting health guidelines by telling new mothers not to bother sterilising bottles and similar equipment. NSW Health's infection-control policy, which applies in public hospitals, insists that all infant-feeding equipment be cleaned and disinfected.

Christine Nixon: what the backlash is really all about

11 April 2010: Shoving a piece of cake into her mouth. Talking about food. Walking uncomfortably along a corridor, looking big and ungainly. These are all the images that have been presented of Christine Nixon this week, on television and in newspapers. Some of the images are months, or years, old.

Volunteers save lives while pollies bicker

11 April 2010: If Kevin Rudd is serious about sticking his beak into Victoria's health system, he should spend a weekend in Wedderburn. This small town in north-central Victoria has no hospital, no ambulance, no pharmacy and no resident doctor. But a dedicated crew of volunteers has stepped up to fill the gap.

The health test every man should do

11 April 2010: Many men baulk at the thought of checking themselves for testicular cancer, but survival rates are high if it is treated early. Learn how to check for it. Second only to melanoma, testicular cancer, while still relatively rare, occurs most frequently in men aged 15 to 45, and there are about 600 new cases each year.

This Sydney woman gave birth but can't remember it. At 31, she has Alzheimer's

11 April 2010: It should have been one of the most joyous moments of her life, but Rebecca Doig was tragically indifferent when she became a mother last week. At just 31, Mrs Doig has rapid-onset Alzheimer's disease. She is one of the youngest sufferers in the world and the first to give birth.

Time's up: kids are still binge drinking

11 April 2010: We've been beaten around the cranium with public-health announcements for so long that it's no wonder we're a bit punch-drunk. But it's odd that we're supposed to be celebrating our "love of beer" and, at the same time, happy to spend millions of our tax dollars on anti-drinking campaigns.

Hospitals hit by crime epidemic

10 April 2010: An epidemic of crime in Queensland hospitals has been uncovered by a Sunday Mail Freedom of Information investigation. It reveals that thefts occur so often some hospitals no longer fill out security reports, telling victims to just contact police. And many staff "no longer bother to report thefts".

Life expectancy in now 68 years

10 April 10: Global life expectancy has increased sharply from 47 years in 1950-55 to 68 years in 2005–2010. The report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said people are living longer mainly because of improvements in nutrition and hygiene, and advances in vaccines and medical treatments against infectious and parasitic diseases that are "communicable".

One in 10 teens cyberbullied every few weeks

10 April 2010: One in 10 Australian teenagers experience cyberbullying, involving nasty messages or photos posted online or sent on mobile phones, every few weeks, according to new research. However, most of those being cyberbullied are also being bullied face-to-face, research by the Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia shows.

A leaner cuisine is now a public health priority

10 April 2010: When our children skip out of the Sydney Royal Easter Show clutching show bags containing the equivalent of 75 teaspoons of refined sugar, we call it a treat. But if we then to fail to strap them into an approved child restraint in the car or we light up a cigarette when we drive off, we're breaking the law.

Bligh to review health pay bungle

10 April 2010: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has launched a review into a wages bungle that left almost 4000 health workers without pay or short-changed because of a new payroll system. Ms Bligh indicated heads would roll if there was enough evidence to prove the fiasco happened as a result of negligence.

Keneally offers support for Brumby on health

10 April 2010: Yesterday the federal government appeared to step up its threat to take the issue to a referendum. The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, made it clear for the first time that if Victoria failed to agree on a reform plan, ''we will be going to a referendum''. But Ms Keneally backed Mr Brumby's right to seek big changes to the reform plan. She urged Mr Rudd to consider all options and left open the possibility of deadlock.

Govt adds $22m for Qld medical training

10 April 2010: The federal government is to spend another $22 million on extra medical training for Queensland's future health workforce needs. The funding will support about 1040 additional clinical training placements for students currently enrolled in medicine, nursing, psychology, physiotherapy, pharmacy, podiatry and a number of other disciplines.

We won't give up: fresh resolve for cancer centre

10 April 2010: South-West federal and state MPs have vowed to increase their efforts to fight for a locally-based cancer service after our region was snubbed by the federal government.

Opinions divided on a special delivery

10 April 2010: The popularity of homebirths is growing, as is confusion about new regulations. When Anna and Chris Rummey gave birth to their daughter Rosemary earlier this year, they did so in the comfort and security of their own home. The Rummeys' decision to give birth at home was based on reading accounts from other women about how positive they found the experience.

Doubts over multivitamin, breast cancer link

9 April 2010: The Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia has questioned the validity of a study linking multivitamin use to an increased risk of breast cancer. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that women who reported taking multivitamins were 19 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer.

Doubts over health reform

10 April 2010: State Treasury documents have cast doubt on the financial benefit of the Rudd Governments health reforms. Briefing notes obtained by the Mercury warn of risks associated with the federal proposal to seize GST revenue from the states and inject it directly into hospitals.

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