Health policy consultant Margo Saunders has been investigating some of the background to the announcement this week of an industry-dominated group to advise on the development of a national food plan. Some bureaucratic food fights are underway…
Health
Inside the Department of Health and Ageing: a document dump
A wealth of information about the structures, programs and processes of the Department of Health and Ageing has been released in response to FOI requests for the department’s brief to the incoming government. Melissa Sweet examines the documents.
Measuring the ‘crises’ in health and education
Our health and education systems are in crisis, we’re told, even by the politicians who run them, but some funny results emerge when you look at how they compare internationally.
The fattest nations on the planet
Australians may be fat, but we ain’t fat enough to make the top ten list of countries (to be fair, we make the top twenty) of the WHO’s most obese nations. A whopping 95% of Nauru’s population is overweight and
PHOTO GALLERY 
The haunting images of a dying child
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer prize for feature photography — so yes, it’s a little old, but trust us, you’ll want to see this — this heartbreaking series portrays a single mother caring for her young son in his losing battle with cancer.
AMA smiling but not everyone’s happy about diabetes backdown
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.
Cancer and Indigenous health: the pitfalls of assumption-based policy
Why is there so little policy attention to the toll that cancer takes upon Indigenous Australians? Perhaps, as Daniel Vujcich explains, policy is being based on assumptions rather than the evidence.
Banning junk-food advertising to kids? Take with a pinch of salt
Claims by Professor Boyd Swinburn in Crikey that the Productivity Commission got it wrong on childhood obesity should be taken with a pinch of (artery-hardening) salt, writes health policy consultant Jennifer Doggett.
A reform government? Gillard is all talk
Julia Gillard talks incessantly about reform. It’s a shame that Labor is incapable of delivering it.
Euthanasia and the fine line walked by nurses
When you are about to pick up the phone to call an ambulance for a palliative, ill or dying family member: strongly consider whether you are making the right decision as you may just be prolonging their death, not giving them life, writes a nurse from a Sydney hospital.
The real economy isn’t what you expect
Our workforce has changed dramatically in the past 25 years and its evolution continues in some surprising areas.
What to do when your eyeball pops out of its socket
Need advice on what to do in case one of your teeth gets punched out or you accidentally cut off a finger? CNN provides a handy (if somewhat gruesome) how-to guide. Tip: don’t put a cut finger directly on ice, it’ll get freezer burn.
Only parents and guardians should be able to buy booze for minors
Sarah Jaggard from he Australian Drug Foundation, is hoping that a new call to ban the secondary supply of alcohol to minors may be taken up by the Victorian Government.
Why I’m glad that I suffer from horrible depression
Depression is a heart-breaking, soul-destroying disease. But it’s not all bad. One man tells of how his battle with depression allows creativity and a chance to actually feel something.
A pain in the arse: a diary about living with cancer
Jonty Este is a 48-year-old journalist living in Sydney and suffering from bowel cancer. He talks about the emotional struggle his family endures as he heads into surgery.
Gillard finds a smidge of vision
Labor’s launch was a flat, uninspiring affair — but at last Julia Gillard produced something faintly visionary on e-health.
Will the election health debate move beyond sickening?
Most of Australia’s disease burden is driven by preventable risk factors, yet prevention is virtually nowhere to be seen in this election campaign. Time to make it an issue during this week’s health debate, writes Professor Boyd Swinburn.
must read 
Hitchens: My battle with cancer
Christopher Hitchens eloquently writes about his struggle with cancer of the esophagus. “In whatever kind of a “race” life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist,” he mourns.
How would you choose to die?
Everyone will eventually die, yet we spend billions on healthcare for patients to delay the inevitable. Death is no longer a brief process, but a lengthy and painful medically aided struggle. It shouldn’t be like this, argues surgeon Atul Gawande.
Bleak future for doctors trained overseas
The case of Jayant Patel may have disappeared from the news headlines but it has left a lasting impression on how Australians view internationally trained doctors, says Dr. Tanveer Ahmed.
Not milk? Beware the secret chemicals found in infant formulas
Lots of mothers use powdered formula to supplement their breastmilk supply. But just what chemicals do they use to get that human milk taste?
How the Patel case has changed the world of health care for ever
Some doctors are concerned about Jayant Patel’s conviction for manslaughter and his sentence to seven years imprisonment. Why? Because it sets a dangerous precedent, writes Professor Merrilyn Walton.
Cutting the cord on home births
Medical intervention can be a wonderful thing during childbirth. But it can also be scary and unnecessary. So why is the government essentially legislating against home births? asks SJ Finn.
Some expert health tips for the new PM
Julia Gillard should set rid of the private health insurance subsidies and focus on primary health care and prevention, mental health, rural health and other under-served areas, say Croakey experts.
Mendoza: Mental health is “in crisis”
John Mendoza, who resigned last week as chairman of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health, gives a damning assessment of the Rudd government’s treatment of mental health.
