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WEEK COMMENCING 12 JUNE 2010

Men's Health Week 14–20 June 2010

Men’s Health Week is a chance to promote awareness for important male specific health issues, while acknowledging and celebrating the contribution men make at work, home and in the community. It’s about encouraging men to make the right choices to improve their lifestyle, wellbeing and all areas of their physical, mental, emotional and sexual health.

Kevin Rudd's health reform plan still on drawing board

18 June 2010: Kevin Rudd's $50 billion hospitals reform plan faces further changes and is unlikely to be debated in Parliament before the Federal election, sparking Opposition claims that the biggest rewrite of the national health system since Medicare is in disarray. Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday conceded the Government faced "an enormously complex implementation strategy" and might have to make changes to its reforms as it fleshed out the detail of the policy.

Opinion: Run that health reform past us again?

18 June 2010: After the hyperbole, it's time for the fine print. Two months ago, the Prime Minister claimed his $50 billion health and hospitals package was the biggest reform since Medicare. Now the government seems intent on rewriting what was supposed to be a model for co-operative federalism, dumping a federal oversight body and signalling that Western Australia will not necessarily be punished for refusing to hand over 30 per cent of its GST.

A beat-up? Roxon should know

18 June 2010: Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday dismissed the news of the axing of the National Funding Authority as "a beat-up of great proportions" - invoking the journalist's term for a story that is cranked up to sound bigger than it really is. Now Roxon has admitted that other parts of the plans may yet go the same way as the axed federal funding body, which further calls into question the integrity of the plans. Pressure points are already there. One element of the reforms, a plan to give lump-sum payments to GPs to treat patients with diabetes, is enraging many doctors and is unlikely to go unaltered.

Roxon not in on revealing health policy switch

18 June 2010: Health Minister Nicola Roxon has admitted that the Prime Minister's department had not informed her beforehand that it was to reveal an important element of the health reform plan was to be ditched. Ms Roxon has denied opposition claims that she was not in on the decision to dump plans for the National Funding Authority, which was to oversee the distribution of Commonwealth health funding to the states.

Canadian payroll experts fly in to sort out Queensland Health system problems

18 June 2010: Taxpayers will fork out almost $350,000 for two international computer software experts to work on the bungled Queensland Health payroll system.

Roxon backs away from withholding health funding from WA

17 June 2010: Western Australia may still get $350 million in new federal health funding, even if the Barnett government refuses to sign up to the Prime Minister's hospital reform package. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said today she thought it was likely there would be a “stand-off for some time” over the issue between the commonwealth and Colin Barnett's Liberal government. However she conceded the government was looking at other ways the $350m could flow through to WA, saying she would not penalise its people.

Roxon: More elective surgeries, doctors and nurses – AIHW report

17 June 2010: The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that hospitals have benefited from the extra funding provided by the Rudd Government as part of its work to deliver better health and better hospitals for Australian families. The report also shows a jump in the numbers of doctors and nurses working in our hospitals.

Roxon launches revamped pregnancy hotline

17 June 2010: A new national pregnancy hotline that promises to be a non-directive and more comprehensive service than its predecessor will be launched by the Federal government on 1 July. Health minister Nicola Roxon says funding will be distributed to a wider range of care organisations to provide referral services and “peer support” via the helpline, which will provide advice to women during pregnancy on topics such as postnatal depression, miscarriage and stillbirth, maternal nutrition, infant demands, breastfeeding, and sleeping habits, Ms Roxon told Parliament yesterday.

Labor accused of health 'backflip'

17 June 2010: The Rudd government has been accused of making health policy on the run after it scrapped plans for a funding oversight body and caved in to Western Australia on hospital payments. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet revealed late on Wednesday night that a proposed National Funding Authority had been cut from Labor's new health structure. Now, the commonwealth money will be paid directly into the state funds, which will have a commonwealth and state supervisor and an independent chair.

Roxon defends dumping health funding watchdog

17 June 2010: Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the Government decided to scrap part of its health reform plan because the agreement reached with the states and territories meant it was no longer needed. "We believe that we can get the transparency that is needed, that we can actually track the way the money can be spent and passed onto local networks without establishing a separate authority."

Nursing home beds announcement expected within weeks

17 June 2010: An announcement about the future of 16 nursing home beds in Holbrook is expected within weeks. Representatives from the Greater Hume Shire Council and the health service met NSW Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday.

PM Kevin Rudd dumps National Funding Authority

17 June 2010: Kevin Rudd has abandoned the top layer in his $50 billion health reform plan, scrapping the National Funding Authority, which was to oversee payments to the states as part of his boost to public hospital funding. The body would have overseen the federal fund that will pay state funding authorities and then local hospital networks – meaning the commonwealth government will have one less body monitoring its injection into the state systems.

Coalition to publish waiting lists

17 June 2010: State hospitals will be forced to publish regularly the number of outpatients waiting to be seen – if the Coalition wins November's state election. The opposition has promised to publish the outpatient data – which currently is not publicly available – every three months, including the waiting time from a doctor's referral to a patient being treated.

Psych patients placed into crowded wards

17 June 2010: The closure of mental-health hospital beds has continued apace in the past four years, forcing psychiatric patients into crowded general wards or to queue for treatment at community clinics that are few and under-resourced. The latest national hospital statistics report shows the numbers of public psychiatric beds fell by an average of 3.7 per cent every year from 2004-05 to 2008-09, from 2487 beds to 2140. The report, published today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, shows the fall defies a smaller increase in bed numbers across public hospitals generally, increasing by 2.7 per cent during the four years, at an average annual rate of 0.7 per cent – up from 52,806 to 54,338.

Elective surgery queues getting shorter

17 June 2010: More people are going to hospital but waiting queues for elective procedures are getting shorter, new figures reveal. The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows public and private hospital admissions have risen by 16 per cent since 2004-05, to more than eight million admissions in 2008-09.

Elective surgery delays worsen, but only in NSW

17 June 2010: NSW was the only state to go backwards in elective surgery performance last year, new figures show, with patients waiting longer for their procedures. There was also a small drop in the number of operations.

Elective surgery – the sick still die waiting

17 June 2010: Elective surgery waiting lists at NSW hospitals have ballooned despite a $94 million federal funding package to slash them. The latest hospital score card released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today showed the number of elective surgery procedures performed in the state has been falling since 2006-07 when 201,630 elective operations were done.

400 frustrated people walk from emergency wards each week

16 June 2010: Four hundred people a week are walking out of emergency departments without being treated because they are frustrated with long waits. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report Australian hospital statistics 2008-09, almost four in 10 people presenting to hospital are not seen within recommended times.

'I'll go back to Hornsby hospital': Rudd

16 June 2010: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he'll honour a pledge to return to a problem-plagued Sydney hospital – but not until the commonwealth's reform plan starts to be implemented. Mr Rudd visited Hornsby Hospital earlier this year and promised to return for a tour. The hospital, in Sydney's north-west, has been likened to a "slum" due to its rundown state.

Prime Minister: Transcript of joint press conference, Canberra

16 June 2010: Journalist: Prime Minister because no one is starting I will. I wanted to ask you about health very quickly. Do you remember making a promise to a doctor in Hornsby by the name of Richard Harris when you visited earlier this year? You told him you would go back and tour the hospital with him. He's contacted you on seven different occasions directly and he's had no response. (Scroll down)

Buying Viagra online poses health risks

16 June 2010: Aussie men who bypass doctors and buy drugs online for erectile dysfunction risk poisoning themselves, a leading urologist has warned. The Urological Society of Australia says new research shows counterfeit versions of Viagra and Cialis sold online pose dangerous health risks and are likely a waste of money.

Wollongong Hospital scores $5m teaching facility

16 June 2010: Visiting medical students of the future will spend their stay in a $5 million teaching and accommodation facility aimed at ensuring their experience of Wollongong is a positive one. And a 12-bed short stay unit will be set up next month to ease pressure on the city's emergency department. Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced federal funding for the dual improvements yesterday in a visit intended to showcase Wollongong's share of the benefit borne of NSW's signing of the health reform agreement.

Govt to merge cancer agencies

16 June 2010: The federal government plans to merge the commonwealth's two leading cancer agencies – Cancer Australia and the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre. Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the single national agency will have a clear "leadership mandate" across all cancers.

Stand-off on health reform

16 June 2010: The dispute between the federal and West Australian governments over health reforms is set to go to the wire after state Health Minister Kim Hames ruled out any deal involving a handover of GST revenue.

Cigarette tax hike laws passed

15 June 2010: Legislation to formalise the 25 per cent increase in tobacco taxes has passed federal Parliament.

Butler: Drug Action Week launched in Canberra

15 June 2010: Drug Action Week 2010 was launched today by the Parliamentary Secretary, Mark Butler, at Campbell High School in the ACT. Drug Action Week 2010 is an initiative of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia, with funding support from the Australian Government. It provides individuals, organisations, and communities with the opportunity to promote awareness of the harms of alcohol and other drugs.

Roxon: One single, united and stronger national cancer agency

15 June 2010: The Rudd Government plans to create a single national cancer control agency to further strengthen the Government’s strategic focus on cancer control and build a better health and hospital system. The Government today announces its intention to amalgamate the national lead cancer agency, Cancer Australia, with the successful National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC), the Government’s expert centre on breast and ovarian cancer control.

Butler: Australian Government commits a further $750,000 to MS Research

16 June 2010: Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mark Butler today announced the Australian Government will provide a further $750,000 to Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia (MSRA) over the next three years. This builds on $750,000 provided to the MSRA over the past three years and will help MSRA further develop its research strategy to accelerate advances that will prevent, better treat and ultimately cure multiple sclerosis (MS). It will also assist the MSRA to broaden their funding base.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon attacks Opposition leader Tony Abbott on abortion issue

16 June 2010: Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has launched an attack on Tony Abbott and his religion, accusing the opposition leader of letting his "personal beliefs" in Catholicism affect policy formulation. Ms Roxon fired the salvo during question time today when discussing Labor's commitment to an "expanded and improved pregnancy, birth and baby hotline".

Canberra gets final say on Medicare Locals

16 June 2010: Federal health minister Nicola Roxon has offered up more details on the government’s health reforms, telling Parliament that the Commonwealth will set the boundaries for the Medicare Locals network, while states will decide the local hospital network borders.

Staff retention key to rural health care

16 June 2010: Money spent on recruiting health care workers in rural areas could be better used by providing current staff with incentives to stay, a new report revealed. The research carried out by the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) at the Australian National University said the high levels of staff turnover in remote areas was a major financial burden on the health service.

Roxon: New beds for Wollongong Hospital

15 June 2010: Australia’s historic health and hospital reform is to deliver an additional 21 beds to Wollongong Hospital.

Snowdon: ‘Doc’ceroos take on Australian Federal Police at Parliament to launch Men’s Health Week

15 June 2010: The launch of Men’s Health Week is a great way of promoting awareness of male health issues, the Minister for Indigenous Health and Rural and Regional Health, Warren Snowdon, and the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, said today. The launch was celebrated with a penalty shoot-out at Parliament House in Canberra today between the Australian Federal Police and ‘Docceroos’ – a team of soccer-playing doctors.

Fully functional artificial skin being trialled by Sydney researchers

15 June 2010: A full thickness artificial skin which should dramatically reduce the pain and scarring associated with skin grafts is being developed by Sydney researchers. Burns experts from the University of Sydney and Concord Hospital have started animal trials of a living skin that is grown outside the body and is completely functional when grafted on to the body.

Drug cash locked up in Cabinet

15 June 2010: Thousands of cancer, arthritis and psoriasis patients have been waiting up to nine months for the Rudd Cabinet to approve subsidies that will allow them to afford new medicines that otherwise cost up to $40,000 a year.

Three-year medication wait

15 June 2010: Patients are waiting up to three years for life-saving drugs to be put on the discount Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicine list and Health Minister John Hill wants a review to cut the waiting time. Mr Hill has told a Federal Government inquiry the Cabinet approval process should be streamlined and the application process reviewed to stop drug companies having to make multiple submissions before approval.

Bureaucratic bungling wastes chemotherapy assets

15 June 2010: Chemotherapy chairs promised to Gawler Health Service are destined to gather dust because there is no space for them and no one with the expertise or time to deliver the service, doctors say. Local GP Anthony Page heads GP Inc, a group of local doctors who work together to provide accident and emergency services in the area. He says the chairs are not necessary, it is unclear how they will be resourced, and the money is more urgently needed for emergency care.

Time to rethink how we look at dementia, says health expert

15 June 2010: Much as the public now accepts disabilities such as paraplegia as part of everyday life, they must allow dementia sufferers into the mainstream. Julian Hughes, a consultant in old-age psychiatry in Britain, says society remains uncomfortable with dementia, and governments are yet to recognise it as a significant health issue.

Flu could deliver 'chaos' for WA hospitals

14 June 2010: A severe strain of swine flu coupled with a drop in flu vaccinations could spell chaos for WA's health system, according to the Australian Medical Association. The WA Health Department doesn't collect statistics on the number of people who have been vaccinated until the end of the flu season but there are fears the adverse publicity and suspension of the program has turned the elderly and parents of older children away from immunising against the flu.

Study of severe asthma using CT scans

14  June 2010: A new study led by University of Leicester researchers at Glenfield Hospital suggests that CT scans may be the way forward for monitoring progression of severe asthma as well as checking how it is responding to treatment.

Support scheme for nurses

14 June 2010: Nurses and undergraduate nursing students are being urged to take advantage of a new Australian Government nursing scholarship scheme which supports continuing professional development and encourages nurses into Aboriginal medical services.

Fears on IVF birth defects

14 June 2010: Birth defects caused by in-vitro fertilisation are up to twice as common as previously thought, according to international researchers.  A study of more than 15,000 births over four years concluded about 4 per cent of children conceived artificially were born with "a major congenital malformation". These include heart abnormalities, malformations of the uro-genital system, and benign tumours, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics in Sweden.

Related: Media release: Children born after assisted reproduction at greater risk of congenital malformations; doctors should be prepared to inform parents of these risks, scientists say.

GPs fight poaching of patients

14 June 2010: The new Nelson Plaza Clinic in Port Stephens, which bulk bills pensioners, children and the chronically ill, is seen as a serious threat by some existing GP businesses that have been charging pensioners $65 per consultation. The medical press sported front page stories on the superclinic last week, with Australian Doctor magazine accusing it of running an "advertising blitz to recruit patients".

Big year for mental health advocate

14 June 2010: t's been a big 12 months for 2010 Australian of the Year Professor Pat McGorry, who has now also been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO). Prof McGorry has received the honour for his distinguished service to medicine and mental health – particularly youth mental health – as a leading clinician, scientist and advocate for reform.

Health 'myki' blows budget

14 June 2010: Victorian hospitals have slammed the state government's trouble-plagued $323 million health technology system - dismissing its benefits as limited and accusing the government of putting hospitals at ''serious risk''. A series of documents from the networks that run hospitals across Victoria reveal a litany of problems and dissatisfaction with the HealthSmart system, which is running four years late and $35 million over budget.

Men urged to focus more on health issues

13 June 2010: Doctors are using men's health week to urge Aussie blokes to drop the "she'll be right" attitude and take better care of their bodies. The Australian Medical Association says the week-long campaign – which kicks off on Monday – is an opportunity to get the message out that men shouldn't be complacent about their health.

Nursing homes tying elderly to chairs

13 June 2010: New research from Charles Sturt University found restraining patients is routine.Nursing lecturer Dr Maree Bernoth, a former aged-care educator who has been conducting a study into nursing homes since 2003, said that use of the measure often boiled down to unskilled staff and severe shortages.

Related: Dr Maree Bernoth: Bodies in Focus — the implications for policy in aged care.

Wallet comes out for the phoney campaign

13 June 2010: The phoney election campaign has begun, with the Rudd government unleashing millions of dollars worth of electoral sweeteners over the past week, targeting some of the most marginal seats. Since last Monday, Labor ministers have fanned out across the country to announce funding for various projects including sports stadiums, community centres, local hospitals, water saving schemes, health and housing.

Will four beds rehabilitate ALP’s repute?

12 June 2010: Labor invested $7.3 billion over five years to create a National Health and Hospitals Network, which Bennelong Liberal candidate John Alexander has called a “great big new bureaucracy”. On Monday, Health and Ageing Minister Nicola Roxon and Bennelong Federal Labor MP Maxine McKew pledged $6.2 million to fund four additional sub-acute beds at the new 60-bed rehabilitation centre to be established at Ryde Hospital.