What to make of Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s recent back-down on plans to overhaul diabetes care? Robert Wells, director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and cirector of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the ANU, is not impressed by the delays.
Health policy
Our black health gap: less spent on primary aboriginal health
Mainstream primary health services are failing indigenous Australians, according to the country’s peak doctors group, with services not delivering adequate care or value for money. Jane Vashti Ryan investigates some disturbing new figures.
Health: Will Budget announcements be a circuit breaker?
Mental health and dental health were the clear losers last night. But will the other health announcements be a circuit breaker for the government? Croakey’s Melissa Sweet wraps the commentary.
Health Budget 2010: What the experts say
Croakey wraps reactions to last night’s Budget from Australia’s health experts and community, covering everything from dental policy (or the lack of it), primary health care and alcohol policy and prevention.
Are we going back to the 1960s in mental health?
The Health Department may be able to write a chook raffle policy, but it has few employees with much experience of running health services, and too many decision-making generic career bureaucrats without any clinical background, says psychiatrist Alan Rosen.
The health debate diagnosis: underwhelming
Croakey rounds up what the health commentariat is saying about yesterday’s big health debate between Rudd and Abbott. Looks like an acute case of “unimpressed”.
Showdown at the old despatch box
After shooting it out in a Question Time stand-off, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott have agreed to an old fashioned showdown over health in a debate next week. Bernard Keane recounts a wild, wild day in the chamber.
Why is Australia dragging the chain on tackling health inequality?
Australian policy makers could learn a thing or two from a landmark report aimed at tackling inequalities in health that was released in the UK yesterday, writes Melissa Sweet.
Another missed opportunity for health reform
Systemic health problems don’t usually grab daily headlines, but the state of our national health system will nevertheless emerge as an important concern in the next national election, predicts Professior Ian Hickie.
Should the Feds take over community health?
The states have forfeited the right to run community health services, says psychiatrist Professor Alan Rosen. It’s time for a federal takeover and the establishment of “one-stop-shop” primary health care centres.
The question that health ministers should be asking
Is it too much to ask that health ministers question whether their policies further increase or decrease the inequities in access to good health and to health services? asks Melissa Sweet.
Abortion: speaking up for the muzzled doctors
With an important case on medical abortion in the Cairns Magistrates’ Court, there is an urgent need for reform of Queensland’s archaic and repressive abortion laws, writes Dr Caroline de Costa.
MEANWHILE: Queensland passes abortion law reforms
Healthcare reform’s big question: is all treatment necessary?
More health care does not necessarily mean better health, writes Mary Haines.
Robin Hood, the health budget and other contemporary tales
Finding someone with high expectations of the Federal health budget is about as difficult as scoring a dental appointment in the bush, but we tracked some opinions down anyway.
Why everyone’s election health policies are lacking
A sound health policy will not just spend money, it will spend it wisely. The AMA’s latest policy hits all the politically-correct buttons but are we getting the best value for our health spending?
