We are assured nuclear powered submarines and missiles will make us more secure, but with hospitals chronically underfunded and poverty and homelessness on the rise, are they the actually the right choice? (more…)
The nightly television coverage of the war in Ukraine is increasingly bleak. We see a distraught mother who has lost all her possessions. The camera moves to her three-year-old daughter in a pink coat, playing while her mother speaks. She seems happy enough. We are tempted to think ‘At least the children are OK’. But the children are not OK. In war it is the children who suffer the most. (more…)
Vaping represents a historic opportunity to dramatically reduce Australia’s annual loss of 21,000 lives from smoking. But understandable intense hatred of tobacco companies and a strong preference to eliminate nicotine use has contributed to a hostility to vaping in Australia which is irrational and unsustainable. (more…)
Just 4% of for-profit providers were in the highest quality tier. (more…)
| As the federal election looms so too does a crisis in affordable access to dental care. The pandemic has served to further widen the socio-economic dental divide – and there are consequences for healthcare costs, productivity and social inclusion. (more…) |
The problems in residential aged care are a product of a much broader issue, namely the failure to fund publicly subsidised comprehensive multidisciplinary community care. (more…)
Big Alcohol has once again actively undermined efforts by the World Health Organization to adopt a new alcohol action plan and mobilise governments to do more to stop preventable alcohol harm.
To be truly inclusive and equitable, Australia needs a federal statutory body that represents and supports people from ethnic communities.
The US’s high Covid-19 death rate can be attributed at least in part to structural barriers and a for-profit healthcare system.
It’s hardly surprising that a new variant has been detected in more than 55 countries, given only how little of poor countries’ populations have been vaccinated.
The Health Department’s Covid response was filled with missteps due to its indifferent minister, structural deficiencies and reliance on consultants. (more…)
To bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, vaccination rates in the most vulnerable countries need to increase.
The sector that includes some of our most vulnerable citizens was unprepared for the end of lockdowns: the Commonwealth is overwhelmingly to blame. (more…)
What we have learnt from decades of experience about analysing what to do when things go wrong in healthcare should be applied to public health too.
From my Omicron sickbed, I am watching my healthcare colleagues deal with a true disaster, writes Paul Komesaroff.
We need a statesman to recognise the opportunity to renew health services after the disruptions of the pandemic. This is the second of two articles.
Understaffed hospitals and care facilities, burgeoning surgery backlogs, insufficient medical graduates, rising mental health problems – the list of challenges ahead is formidable. (more…)
The policy retreat from virus suppression to virtually no control has placed the nation’s pathology industry, and health services overall, under crippling pressure. (more…)
We are all sick of Covid and the disruption it has wrought. But the pandemic will not be over until it is over. Glib slogans won’t alter that reality.
The country is mired in a directionless mess and will continue to flounder without a new narrative and a policy response that emphasises protection.
The mistakes made during the Covid pandemic have been costly but provide an opportunity to ensure the nation is better prepared next time.
What kind of fool am I? The government has made mistake after mistake on COVID. It was silly of me to assume it wouldn’t botch Omicron too. (more…)
The pandemic has weaponised the argument that individual responsibility for one’s health is best – free from government edicts. This is pathetic.
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It is a pipe dream to imagine that living with the variants will be seamless. This pandemic will be keep throwing up new challenges for a while yet.
The Commonwealth has learned nothing from this litany of previous mistakes and continues to ignore lessons learnt from overseas. (more…)
Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout was shemozzle. In the second part of a two-part article, Robin Boyle reviews where we failed.
Against the odds, Australia’s vaccine rollout has been largely successful. In the first part of a two-part article, Robin Boyle reviews what worked.
Australia’s ability to move on from the pandemic has been possible by hoarding vaccines and ignoring the vast majority of the world’s population.
The reforms required to improve health outcomes are not controversial and are proven overseas — what is lacking here is the courage to tackle the systemic problems.