Crikey readers have their say.
Health
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Welching — err welshing — on Wilkie
Crikey Says: An apple a day …
The Australian Medical Association came out swinging yesterday in response to an article in The Medical Journal of Australia by Dr Tony Webber, a GP who until recently headed the Medicare watchdog.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Where have all the flowers gone?
Crikey readers have their say.
Why we need healthy housing policy
Housing stress is in the headlines as a result of a new report from The National Housing Supply Council. It coincides with further new research about the need to link health and housing policy, writes Caroline Chen.
Home births: don’t just focus on the statistics
Home birth will not go away, it is here to stay, so let us all share the responsibility for making it safe and satisfying, as should be our goal with all maternity care options, says associate professor of midwifery Hannah Dahlen.
Sydney: Australia’s coked up capital
Cocaine use in on the rise in Australia, particularly in Sydney and particularly amongst high-earning individuals who would never call themselves drug addicts. Joel Meares investigates the social, health and political issues of the white powder.
Climate change a ‘grave threat’ to health and security
Over in the UK, researchers examining the health and security implications of climate change are finding some worrying results. Think mass migration and humanitarian crisis, reports Melissa Sweet.
Pharmacy Guild deal with Blackmores ends in tears
Some extremely interesting conversations must have been occurring behind closed doors in pharmacy-land, in the wake of the disastrous deal between the Pharmacy Guild and Blackmores, reports Melissa Sweet.
Crikey Clarifier: Crikey Clarifier: what is a ‘superbug’ and how does penicillin destroy them?
Last week drug company CSL wrote to hospitals, advising them to start rationing an intravenous form of penicillin. But will it increase superbugs and what are they anyway? Crikey intern Greg Foyster investigates.
Tony Abbott versus the facts part XXVI: life expectancy
Tony Abbott claims to have played a role in improving life expectancy for Australians. But what do the facts say?
Half of cancer sufferers don’t understand why they have it
Despite cancer research increasingly unveiling more about the ‘big C’, we still see myths thrive. What effect does this have? Myths are just part and parcel of the great unknown — right? It shouldn’t be this way, says Freddy Sitas.
Essential: we’re happy to ban social media, indifferent on health reforms
More people support a ban on social media during times of unrest than oppose one — but it depends on usage. And on health … voters seem uninterested in the recent reform package.
Give me a rebate, public hospitals need private health insurance
If the current rate of growth in hospital admissions in Australia continues, private hospitals can expect to be treating 50% of all hospital patients by 2021. Imagine if the public sector alone had to undertake all this work, writes Michael Roff, CEO of the Australian Private Hospitals Association.
Helping people who are depressed to quit smoking
People with depression can quit smoking with the right support, says new research examining a Quitline Victoria program, the first program in Australia to focus on smokers with a history of depression, writes Rebecca Gordon.
The hospital reform deal merits congratulations
Health professionals and patients alike breathed a sigh of relief when Julia Gillard announced the hospitals deal with the states. It was a watering down of the original proposal but no cave-in, writes health director Robert Wells.
podcast Canberra Calling: The Crikey cure for all that ailes you podcast
Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane and Crikey deputy editor Jason Whittaker discuss the the latest COAG health reform agreement and how the politics will play out.
How one hospital exec became a social media convert
In North America, hospitals seem to have been quicker than other parts of the health sector to realise the potential of social media. One early adopted in Oz, Dr John Ballard, former CEO of Mercy Health, explains how he was converted to Twitter.
The downside of raising awareness on ovarian cancer
National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre launched a recent public campaign to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer. But the symptoms are so common that it may raise necessaries anxiety and stress, says professor Marian Pitts.
How health professionals can harness the digital revolution
What are the challenges for those working in the health sector wanting to engage with social media? Melissa Sweet ran a recent workshop on ‘institutionalising social media’ to examine the pros and cons.
Windfarms will make your children hate school, apparently
The lobby group at the centre of promoting the idea that windfarms cause disease, the Waubra Foundation, last week moved its aggression needle up several notches by sending this melodramatic “Explicit Cautionary Notice” to Australia’s wind energy companies and putting them on notice.
Beyond a lobby-driven debate
The fanfare around Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s announcement that 13 new medicines would go on the PBS is a reminder of the power and influence involved in the selection and reimbursement of prescribed medicines, writes Glenn Salkeld.
Not ready to let Roxon off the hook yet
Shakira Hussein was relieved to see her MS drug make the PBS approved list, but she’s not going to break open the metaphorical non-alcoholic champagne until the government reverses its decision to subject drugs recommended for subsidy to cabinet decision-making.
My Rolls-Royce drugs need government fuel to drive them
Academic — and MS sufferer — Shakira Hussein writes about the difficulty of expensive but critical drugs she relies on being left off the PBS approved drug list.
America’s drug addiction
American’s are flocking to Florida, the land of easily accessible prescription drugs, to purchase them cheaply and then sell them on the black market. But thousands are dying every year from prescription drug abuse.
Open disclosure is no silver bullet
Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is moving to be more transparent about how much it pays health care professionals, but GP Dr Peter Mansfield has mixed feelings about the announcement.
