International News

IEU: Definitive mobile phone health study begins

23 April 2010: The biggest study to date into the effects of mobile phone usage on long-term health has begun, aiming to track at least a quarter of a million of people in five European countries for up to 30 years. The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (COSMOS) differs from previous attempts to examine links between cellphone use and diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders in that it will follow users' behavior in real time.

US: The Battle over letting nurse practitioners provide primary care

22 April 2010: Twenty-eight states are now engaged in a heated debate over the difference between a doctor and a nurse: Legislators in these states are considering whether they should let a nurse practitioner (NP) with an advanced degree provide primary care, without having an M.D. looking over her shoulder.  To say that the proposal has upset some physicians would be an understatement.

CHINA: Nursing homes in China

19 April 2010: "Bringing up sons to provide for one's old age" has long been a deep-rooted concept for the Chinese. Any challenge to the concept is regarded as impiety. But now the concept has to change.

US: Student: Let doctors, not nurses, doctor

18 April 2010: : Nurse practitioners say they are capable of taking on doctor roles because they are highly trained and spend more time with their patients. But even though nurses get high-quality training and more hands-on time with patients, how are patients supposed to trust a nurse prescribing them narcotics or recommending medical marijuana rather than having a doctor? There must be a reason for the distinction between titles, after all.

US: Flashpoint: Nurse practitioners: A solution to the impending primary care disaster

16 April 2010: As a nurse practitioner (NP), I am left wondering who will care for the additional primary care needs for 30 million uninsured Americans with the passing of the Health Care Reform Law. Statistics regarding primary care physician resources are grim for sure. Many physicians are leaving primary care or choosing specialty careers out of medical school, instead of primary care for better pay. Additionally many physicians throughout the country are refusing Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates and the bureaucratic mess involving collection.

EU: WHO monitoring health risks from volcano

17 April 2010: Health monitors said on Friday they were keeping a close eye on the plume of ash and gas from Iceland's erupting volcano but saw no major risk to health at present.

CAN: Slow chemical death by rubber duck

17 April 2010: Two Canadian environmentalists found deadly but invisible toxins lurking in the most mundane places. Mattresses, frying pans, shampoo bottles and dozens of other household objects all contain traces of synthetic chemicals which build up in the human body, slowly crippling health and very likely accounting for rising levels of asthma, attention deficit disorder, fertility problems and many other afflictions.

Local News

WEEK COMMENCING 17 APRIL 2010

Hickie: Hospitals will 'treat 'em and street 'em'

23 April 2010: Going into Monday's Council of Australian Governments meeting, the signs for genuine mental health reform were good. ... How is it possible we are now faced with a mental health system that is more fragmented, less resourced and more invisible than ever?

Roxon 'wasting her time with GST arguments'

23 April 2010: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says Health Minister Nicola Roxon is wasting her time trying to convince him to hand over 30 per cent of its GST funding for public hospitals. Mr Barnett dismissed Ms Roxon's warning that Western Australia would miss out on almost $500 million in funding as a "risky strategy" for Labor in the west in a federal election year. Ms Roxon, who was in Perth yesterday for a health ministers meeting, said it was not the commonwealth's preference to withhold the money but negotiations with the West Australian Premier were at an impasse.

Abbott seeks devil in hospital-plan details

23 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd must provide ''chapter and verse'' on his health reforms before the Opposition would support the package. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott issued the challenge after a shadow cabinet meeting yesterday. ''He said it would be nationally funded and locally run wrong on both counts.''

Cancer deaths much higher for Aborigines

23 April 2010: Aborigines living in Sydney are just as likely to die from cancer as those in remote areas of NSW, shattering the belief that a lack of services is responsible for late diagnoses and limited treatment. New figures released by the Cancer Council NSW show that Aboriginal men in metropolitan areas are three times more likely to die from oesophageal cancer than white men, and indigenous women are three times as likely to die from kidney and cervical cancer, even though they may live close to hospitals and medical centres.

Most Qld Health doctors underpaid again

23 April 2010: A second Australian Medical Association (AMA) survey sent to salaried doctors has revealed more than 83 per cent are still affected by the Queensland Health payroll debacle.

Health deal 'may boost bureaucracy'

22 April 2010: The woman behind the Rudd government's health reform blueprint believes a compromise deal struck with Labor states was a political fix that could result in a larger bureaucracy. Christine Bennett chaired federal Labor's National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC). "The pooling mechanism ... was part of a political process and part of achieving the comfort of the states to sign on to the package," she told AAP. "They (state-based pools) may not get in the way (but) I'm not quite sure how they'll add value."

Control of GST remains deal breaker

22 Apr 2010: The WA Premier Colin Barnett says the Federal Goverment's health plan is an elaborate scheme to claw back GST funding from the states. Mr Barnett met the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon in Perth last night. He reiterated that WA would pay $1.5 billion dollars a year, which is equivalent to 30 per cent of GST funding, into a joint federal/state fund, but it will not cede control of GST revenue to the Commonwealth.

Doctors say they're too tired

22 April 2010: LaTrobe Valley doctors told the Victorian Australian Medical Association president Harry Hemley they were fighting fatigue when he visited the region on Tuesday. Tiredness was one of the many issues raised with the president after he visited several clinics.

Minister not told of Medicare record glitch

22 April 2010: Human Services Minister Chris Bowen was not informed of a serious glitch in Medicare's systems involving the potential incorrect updating of up to 30,000 patient records – and nor were affected doctors - until 10 weeks after the error occurred. Medicare is writing to 2700 medical practices to warn that 22,000 patient records will need to be checked as a result of flawed data return messages from the agency's online patient verification service during a three-day period in February.

WA risks losing hospital benefits – Nicola Roxon

22 April 2010: Western Australia risks losing benefits from the federal government's hospitals plan if it fails to sign up, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.

Kennett gives thumbs down to health plan

22 April 2010: Former Victoria premier Jeff Kennett, now a mental health advocate, has given the thumbs down to the federal government's health reforms. He said the Australian health system wasn't perfect but it was so much better than most in the world but this proposal was putting all that at risk.

Health deal fails to deliver real reform

22 April 2010: After what has been touted as the biggest health reform in more than two decades, the state's hospitals may end up looking worryingly similar to the way they do now. Politics and spin aside, the health financing agreement will deliver only moderate improvements for Victoria's hospitals - not the real reform our system has been crying out for.

CCC slams WA Health over drug misuse

22 April 2010: Repeated theft and abuse of restricted drugs by doctors and nurses is highlighted in a damning report by Western Australia's corruption watchdog. A doctor ignoring his patients and staring at medical equipment and a drug-affected nurse found slumped in a toilet are two of the cases included in a report by WA's Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC).

Comment: Rudd's public failure

22 April 2010: So what did Kevin Rudd get in exchange for the extra $5.4 billion he’s promised to spend on hospitals in order to get the state premiers – with the notable exception of West Australia’s Colin Barnett – to sign up to his "historic" health care agreement? (Discusses hospitals, aged care, efficient price)

Smokers reluctant to seek help

22 April 2010: New research, commissioned by Pfizer Australia, has revealed that 75 per cent of all current smokers have had at least two or more unsuccessful quit attempts yet avoid seeking help from a health care professional.

Report into aged care a year away

22 April 2010: The news that the Productivity Commission's final report into aged care is now only a year away, has made the aged care sector heave a sigh of relief. The terms of reference for the inquiry have been released by the Federal Government along with a proposed timeline. The draft report is supposed to be provided by the commission by December 2010.

Rudd's $1.2b health carrot to the states

20 April 2010: The states have been offered a last-minute $1.2 billion health funds sweetener for emergency departments and elective surgery. It includes $150 million for elective surgery infrastructure, $250 million to deliver faster treatment in emergency departments and $827 million for 800 new sub-acute beds in palliative, rehabilitative, geriatric and mental health care.

Keneally backs Rudd's health plan

20 April 2010: Kristina Keneally has this morning agreed to cede 30 per cent of the state's GST to fund the Rudd government's health reform plan in moves that will increase pressure on Victoria and Western Australia to agree to the change. Ms Keneally made the announcement this morning after a breakfast meeting of the State and Territory leaders.

Rudd plans appeal to Australia over health

20 April 2010: The Federal Government will hold a plebiscite – a national opinion poll – to win a mandate for its changes to hospital funding if the states reject his proposals today. The plebiscite would replace Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's original threat to call a $36 million referendum for extra constitutional powers over the states.

Keneally agrees to hand over GST to fund health reform

20 April 2010: NSW has agreed to allow the commonwealth to retain 30 per cent of its GST to fund hospitals, placing Kevin Rudd on the cusp of securing a deal to reform the nation's health system. Premier Kristina Keneally said this morning after meeting with the Prime Minister that she was prepared to sign up to his health reform package.

SA Premier Mike Rann warns of public outrage if health reform talks fail

20 April 2010 SA Premier Mike Rann has warned of public outrage if the nation's leaders can't reach an agreement on reforms to the health system.

Qld health chief flags more pay blunders

20 April 2010: Queensland Health director-general Mick Reid says staff can expect another month of pay blunders. Officials have already said there'll be more problems with the next Queensland Health pay run on Wednesday, and Mr Reid has warned the problems will extend well beyond that.

Patient ID system may be set to fail: e-health

20 April 2010: A lack of identity management capability within medical offices may bring the compulsory national patient identity numbering scheme unstuck, with doctors unwilling to risk heavy fines for breaches under the proposed Healthcare Identifiers legislation. And the new rules could shut down existing e-health programs such as shared care for patients with chronic diseases, clinical trials, secure messaging services and e-prescribing because software and third-party service providers would not be treated as eligible organisations.

Kim Ryan: Remember us? We’re called nurses

19 April 2010:

Last time I was in hospital, I was cared for round the clock by highly skilled health professionals – nurses. But in all the debate about health reform, one could be forgiven for thinking that doctors are the only people who provide front-line health care.

GP crisis drags out waiting times

19 April 2010: Waiting times for general practitioner (GP) appointments in Tasmania are now the longest they have ever been. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the average waiting time for a routine GP appointment in Tasmania is one month.

Hickie: Premiers must put policy before politics

19 April  2010: If the premiers scuttle a deal at today's Council of Australian Governments meeting, it will represent another victory of politics over health policy. Not because the Rudd government's reform plans will fix all the problems in the system. As things stand they plainly won't, and focus too much on hospitals and too little on the community sector – the GPs, nurses and allied health workers who could keep people healthier and out of hospital if used in the right way.

Roxon guarantees $15b health sweetener

19 April 2010: The Federal Government has agreed to guarantee future funding of the health system in a last minute bid to get the states to sign on to its health plan. "We are so confident ... that we are prepared to guarantee that money will be paid to the states," Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon told ABC Radio's AM program.

Kevin Rudd offers NSW $5bn of extra health cash

19 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will offer New South Wales $5 billion in extra health funding this morning as a final offer to convince the state's Premier, Kristina Keneally, to sign up to his national reforms. NSW will be handed the lion's share of an unprecedented national funding package, worth an extra $15.6 billion, under which the Commonwealth will lock in cast-iron health funding increases of 8.3 per cent a year. Victoria, where political resistance is strongest to the reforms, is to be offered an extra $3.8 billion, Queensland an extra $3.4 billion and South Australia $1.1 billion. The remaining billions are to be shared out between the ACT, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territories.

NSW wins $5b health handout

19 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will offer NSW a staggering $5 billion in extra health funding this morning as a final offer to Premier Kristina Keneally to sign up to national reforms. The extraordinary concession by Mr Rudd was signed off last night as a final, non-negotiable attempt to secure agreements from the states ahead of today's historic COAG meeting in Canberra.

States to receive $14b health windfall

19  April 20: Western Australia will secure a $14 billion windfall from the GST as a result of Australia's recovery from the global financial crisis, to provide growth funding for the health reform plan. Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan released the new figures yesterday to bolster negotiations, confirming the states will secure $14bn more than was forecast in November's mid-year economic forward outlook.

PM wins but war rages on

19 April 2010: It has cost him much more than he would have liked but Kevin Rudd will, by the day's end, have an agreement for his national health and hospital reform plans. And if he doesn't, states such as NSW and Victoria will have to explain why. And not just to him, but to the voters as they head toward their own elections.

Eradicating diseases a waste of money, claims Kiwi scientist

19 April 2010: Eradicating  smallpox was one of mankind's greatest accomplishments but a New Zealand researcher says trying to wipe out diseases for good is a waste of money. Dr Michael Gavin, a biologist at Victoria University, Wellington, says reducing the prevalence of diseases in the countries and regions most affected by them is a far more effective than trying to eradicate them altogether, which is extremely difficult and costs billions of dollars.

Sore throats clog casualty

19 April 2010: More than 2400 people turn up at NSW hospital emergency departments every day with non-urgent conditions such as sore threats to avoid paying the rising cost of visiting a GP. The startling figures, revealed in a briefing document to NSW Cabinet last week, showed ED visits are rising at more than 10 per cent a year, or more than 10 times the rate of population growth.

The overlooked truth: states cannot afford soaring health costs

19 April 2010: When he was the opposition leader, Kevin Rudd once observed the two state Labor governments he rated the highest were those of Victoria and South Australia. Rudd believed Victoria, then under premier Steve Bracks and treasurer John Brumby, had the best policy credentials in the country, the Commonwealth included. South Australia, under Mike Rann, had the best political outfit.

Voters want it, but Grim Reaper happy to kill health reform

19 April 2010: The Victorian Premier, John Brumby, comes to Canberra today as Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. Certainly, his mandate to veto Kevin Rudd's health reform plan must be divine, because he certainly doesn't have the support of the people of Australia, or even the people of Victoria.

Voters support Rudd's health deal: poll

19 April 2010: Almost two-thirds of voters want the states to sign up to Kevin Rudd's health plan, the latest Herald/Nielsen poll shows.

The survey, published by Fairfax on Monday, also shows support for the government has fallen in the past month, due mainly to the asylum seeker issue.

Unhealthy focus on acute care

19 April 2010: When Kevin Rudd promised in 2007 to end the blame game and finally give Australians a national health system, we all cheered. We knew the states had little hope of funding or supplying the 21st-century system that we will need. But those of us in the health professions fear that what we are in danger of being given by the federal government is not a sustainable national health program, but a rather limited public hospital program. Sadly, the Rudd health plan has not scratched the surface in the key areas of health inequality - mental health, dental care and indigenous health.

Media release: Record amount of scholarship funding for ACT nurses and midwives

18  April 2010: ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher MLA, said today that ACT Health would deliver an unprecedented amount of funding this year to support the professional development of the ACT's nurses and midwives.

PM eyes last-ditch deal: possible sweeteners for states

18 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is preparing to concede ground to the states to secure a deal on health reform. The Sun-Herald has learnt a package on mental health is likely to be put on the table by Mr Rudd at tomorrow's Council of Australian Governments meeting, and he is also prepared to make concessions on the control of GST revenue.

Rudd: Take the medicine

18 April 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned state and territory leaders they have to agree on reforming the health system tomorrow or he will take the issue to the federal election. "We're not reconvening, this is it," Mr Rudd told The Sunday Telegraph in an exclusive interview yesterday afternoon. "If it means sitting through the day, and sitting through the night and into the next morning, that's fine. But we're not reconvening, this is it."

Hospital reboot

18 April 2010: Vistorians would be able to log on to the internet to check waiting times at their local hospital under an overhaul of public access to emergency health data promised by the State Opposition. Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said he would unveil the pre-election pledge in a speech to the party faithful at a Liberal State Conference in Melbourne this afternoon.

Vitamins link to cancer

18 April 2010: In a 10-year study of more than 35,000 women, researchers discovered those who regularly took a multi-vitamin pill increased the risk of developing a tumour by 19 per cent. Professor John Boyages, director of the Westmead Breast Cancer Institute and spokesman for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, said he "wouldn't put any weight" on the study, as there were many complicated risk factors involved in breast cancer.

Asthma cure could be current

18 April 2010: Blackcurrants may reduce asthma symptoms. A New Zealand study has found that natural chemicals in blackcurrants may help breathing in some types of asthma. For the study, cells from lung tissue were used to test the effects on the immune system of a proanthocyanidin-rich extract, from blackcurrant cultivars.

Why glandular fever doesn't exist

18 April 2010: Whatever happened to

...Chronic fatigue, Glandular Fever AND Seasonal Affective Disorder? Karen Fittall investigates the diseases that seem to have disappeared.

Blood gay ban review

18 April 2010: The Australian Red Cross is reviewing its policy banning homosexual men from donating blood. Gay rights lobby groups have backed the review, due to begin within 12 months, which could see homosexual men able to donate blood for the first time since 1985. Currently, men who have had homosexual sex within a 12-month period are banned from donating blood.

Editorial: A healthy state is priceless

17 April 2010: A prime minister can hardly tell state premiers that they must hand over 30 per cent of their GST receipts and a large share of their responsibility for health and expect the premiers to click their heels and salute in unison. And to follow up with a threat to hold a referendum if the premiers don't all obey seems positively boorish. ... nurses' attitude could be attributed less to the matters concerning political leaders than something simpler and, if we might use the word, nobler: pride in their work.

ACT to sign onto Rudd's health reform

17 April 2010: The ACT will sign onto Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's health and hospitals reform plan, leaving him to convince just three states to do the same by Monday. ACT chief minister John Stanhope and Mr Rudd emerged from talks in Canberra on Saturday all smiles, having come to an agreement on the controversial health system overhaul.

Media release: A new approach for mental health – Greens

17 April 2010: The Greens today announced a comprehensive mental health plan for Australia and are calling on the Commonwealth to embrace it as a fundamental part of the Prime Minister's proposed health reform program.

Kevin pleads ignorance to avoid strife

17 April 2010: In the past two weeks, when the Prime Minister has been intent on concentrating on his health and public hospitals proposals, he has seemed sadly deficient in media briefings, even on health matters. On Wednesday, on the NSW north coast, he was asked to comment on criticism of his health plan by the "father of Medicare", John Deeble, but responded with "well, perhaps I haven't seen those comments". On Monday, he was asked about comments by Reserve Bank board member, Roger Corbett, who described the health reforms as bizarre. Corbett made his comments on TV on Sunday and they were reported on the front pages of newspapers on Monday. Rudd's response: "I haven't seen those comments."

NSW needs 3 things on health: Keneally

17 April 2010: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is determined to retain control of a third of the state's GST revenue, ahead of Monday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting of premiers and the prime minister to discuss health reform plans. "We want more money to come into the system now. We want an absolute guarantee from the Commonwealth that the money they say we'll get after 2014/15 will come." She added she wanted NSW to retain a third of its GST revenue for health.

Back into the closet: gays find few friends in aged care

17 April 2010: The scant acknowledgment of the need for gay-friendly aged-care services worries the 71-year-old David Urquhart, who says he is scared about what the future holds for him. An Adelaide gerontologist, Jo Harrison, said the aged-care situation for the gay community – with lack of services, awareness and funding – was at crisis point, and problems facing gay seniors had not been acknowledged in government policy.

Condition terminal: NSW doctors demand Keneally oppose Rudd's health plan

17 April 2010: Senior doctors from NSW public hospitals have issued a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister's health reforms, accusing Kristina Keneally of acting in ''injudicious haste to meet a political timetable''.

The great hospital gamble

17 April 2010: Kevin Rudd's decision to boost hospitals rather than promote primary care carries a significant risk of failure. It is probable no prime minister has entered so many hospitals in one year as has Kevin Rudd. After visiting more than 20 hospitals in a few months last year, his blue-smocked parade through the wards and cancer centres has quickened.

Opinion: Not healthy for Rudd to take on the States

17 April 2010: Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. That's Kevin Rudd's position as he faces crunch time on health reform. Despite his "I won't give an inch" public stance, the Prime Minister will go into Monday's Council of Australian Governments meeting prepared to deal - within reason. But he is also serious when he says failure to reach agreement will mean a referendum to put beyond doubt Canberra's power to override the states on health. That is now a political necessity as much as a constitutional one. If he backs down, Rudd will be a laughing stock.

Opinion: Package with strings attached: healthcare reform

17 April 2010: Kevin Rudd has made his final offer to the states on his health reform package. What remains between now and the April 19 Council of Australian Governments meeting is a final funding offer from the Prime Minister.

Brumby keeps up the pressure

17 April 2010: Victoria is threatening to derail the Rudd government's health reforms even though it would lose less of its GST revenue than almost any other state under the plan, new figures reveal. It comes as Monday's Council of Australian Governments meeting shapes up as a bitter battle over GST revenue control and state demands for extra health funding.

Families better off eating junk

17 April 2010: The cost of healthy food is growing at a much faster rate than junk food and the price disparity might be contributing to the nation's health and obesity problems.

Families getting fat on cheap junk food

17 April 2010: As almost two thirds of Australian adults are considered overweight and obese, experts have called for sin taxes to be applied to junk food to try to combat Australia's bulging waistline. The study is likely to fuel those calls as it shows the price gap between junk food prices and a healthy diet is growing wider.

Rudd's hospitals sell a precision-guided missile

17 April 2010: Kevin  Rudd told a close colleague that he didn't go to Washington for US President Barack Obama's nuclear security summit during the week because, just as Obama had cancelled his Australian trip last month to stay in the US and sell his healthcare reforms, Rudd wanted to stay here and do the same.

Dr Brumby knows best

17 April 2010: The biggest problem with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's $50 billion health and hospitals reform plan is Kevin Rudd. If Mr Rudd were to take a step back and stop trying to bully the premiers and chief ministers, his reforms might have a chance of being adopted.

Better mental care would cut homeless 25pc

17 April 2010: Tackling the glaring failings of the mental health system could reduce homelessness -- one of Kevin Rudd's key goals -- by up to 25 per cent, as well as helping to reduce pressure on overloaded hospital emergency departments. Health experts yesterday branded the patchwork of state-based mental services a "dog's breakfast", and said the federal government could address much of its wider agenda by a comprehensive mental health policy.

Mentally ill left waiting in emergency departments for up to a week

17 April 2010: Mental health patients arriving at South Australian hospitals are spending up to a week under guard in emergency department beds, making a mockery of Kevin Rudd and Premier Mike Rann's plans to reduce waiting times to within four hours.

Opinion: Time for Canberra to get serious on mental health

17 April 2010: Closing mental institutions and bringing people back into the community was meant to fix mental illness. It didn't. More than two decades on, the nation battles with a health issue estimated to afflict as many as four million Australians in any one year. But one positive from the community approach to mental health is that it is now so public, its sufferers so visible, its impact on families and friends so intense that it cannot be ignored. No longer out of sight, mental health demands political attention, public resources, expert treatment and adequate research.

No health without healthy beginnings

17 April 2010: During the next months the life and death of Lyji Vaggs in Townsville (as reported by Tony Koch, The Australian, April 16) will be examined in detail, just as the second coronial inquest into the death of Cameron Doomadgee grinds towards a conclusion that will almost certainly not lay that issue to rest.

Australia becoming a crowded house

17 April 2010: Australia's population will reach 42 million by 2050, six million more than the Federal Government's target, if migration, fertility and life expectancy continue at today's pace. Modelling by Australia's Centre for Population and Urban Research warned of a doubling of the population in 40 years, which it also claimed would be unsustainable, and significantly outstrips Federal Government targets.

CareWest health care

16 April 2010: There has been concern expressed locally that, because Parkes is within 100km of Orange, Parkes residents will not be able to access the new CareWest Lodge. Fundraising Coordinator Jan Savage says the rumour is unfounded.

Qld Health works on improvement of payroll problems

16 April 2010: It has been said President of Australian Medical Association's Queensland is worried that doctors might turn their backs on the public system if next week, they are not paid properly. According to AMAQ President, Dr. Mason Stevenson, they analyzed about 300 doctors and over 92% had been affected by Queensland Health's payroll mismanagement. Over 66% people's pay problems had continued for more than a month.

National Registration In Traditional Medicine Welcome

16 April 2010: In Australia, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have practised unregulated for decades. The good news is that national registration will soon be introduced—a move that is welcomed by the profession and the consumers. Regulation of traditional Chinese medical (TCM) practitioners comes under the new National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions.

NT says it will sign health deal if more money is offered

16 April 2010: The Northern Territory Chief Minister says he won't sign Monday's national health agreement until verbal assurances he's been given by the Prime Minister are reflected in the deal. Paul Henderson says he expects the Commonwealth will give the Territory more money because it has to contend with issues that other states don't, such as treating a high number of Indigenous people with complex chronic conditions. Yet the Prime Minister is saying today that he's already put his final offer.

Family questions man's death in hospital

16 April 2010: The bereaved family of an Aboriginal mental health patient, who died after being restrained by hospital security staff and police, says a simple phone call could have saved his life. Lyji Vaggs, 27, tried to admit himself to the mental health unit of Townsville Hospital in north Queensland several times on Wednesday after hearing voices but he was told to go home and take his medication because no beds were available.

Qld doctors threaten walkout over pay bungle

16 April 2010: Queensland doctors are threatening a mass walk after it was revealed more than 90 per cent were affected by the pay debacle, the state's peak medical body says.

NSW wants $700m more for health reforms

16 April 2010: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has thrown more obstacles into Kevin Rudd's path to health reform. She's refusing to hand over control of GST funds and is demanding an extra $700 million sweetener.

News from nursing.aust | Current News | Nursing.Aust | Library News | College Archives | Media Releases | College Home