Professor Paul Torzillo discusses the lessons for healthcare in Upturn: A Better Normal After Covid-19. The volume of essays would have benefitted from a more comprehensive analysis of what a “better normal” in health, rather than just healthcare, would look like. But the plea for ensuring the “humanity of medicine” will resound.
Category: Health
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Deaths in aged care on Morrison’s watch
Some 685 aged care residents died from Covid-19, making Australia one of the worst countries in the world for aged care deaths as a proportion of all Covid deaths. (more…)
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Australian aged care is a crisis waiting to happen
Providers know they are in the box seat and that they can, and do, operate sub-standard homes. Bad homes cannot be closed – imagine the furore if older people were suddenly evicted from a home that does not measure up. (more…)
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Aged care, quarantine: open and shut cases of federal responsibility but Morrison won’t step up to the plate
Experts have spent years warning the federal government that pandemics would increase in frequency and severity. Yet the government was asleep at the wheel when Covid hit. Older people paid a heavy price, with Australia having one of the highest rates in the world of deaths in residential aged care as a proportion of total Covid-19 deaths.
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Indonesia’s pandemic policy: Pray and pay
Indonesia’s former health minister, a medical doctor, predicted the satanic infection would fly over the country because the people below were so pious. The world’s fourth most populous nation has a huge vaccination task ahead.
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Vocational Education Trainers need vaccination priority – economic recovery may depend on it
Face-to-face teaching is vital for VET students, who are often from a lower socio-economic background and are most affected by the digital divide. As getting them back into the classrooms is a priority, their trainers should also be considered a priority group for the Covid-19 vaccine.
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We have the tools to help control the pandemic; we have to use them
The arrival of more infectious Covid variants means more of us need to be vaccinated than previously thought, with an uptake of at least 80%. The federal government must now drive that promotion campaign with a focus on vaccine safety. (more…)
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Putting all our eggs in the vaccination basket is delusional
Governments worldwide have placed their hopes for fighting the pandemic in the roll-out of vaccines. But the jab will not be a panacea for society. Behavioural modifications will still be required.
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Pandemic deaths have numbed our humanity and perception of risk
On one terrible day in December, Covid-19 deaths in the US for the first time exceeded the death toll from the World Trade Centre terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. To make people care we need to personalise the issue.
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Australia’s Covid-19 quarantining – an abrogation of federal responsibilities! There is no national plan
Perhaps the most contentious issue of our Covid year is who is in charge of quarantining? With continuing outbreaks of Covid-19 linked to incoming travellers, Australians have reacted with astonishment that quarantining issues were not foreseen and planned for years ago. How did we end up where we are and what should be done about it? (more…)
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State of emergency: London, Washington DC fail basic duty to protect citizens
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson stand condemned as incompetent, bloody-minded buffoons, but they didn’t get there all by themselves. They were aided and abetted by craven ministers and dangerously partisan media companies.
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Diplomacy’s pointy end. Chinese vaccines in Indonesia.
The choreography was about reassurance. A well-masked Indonesian President Joko Widodo sitting before a large red sign saying AMAN dan HALAL – meaning safe and approved for Muslims. Alongside stood Palace doctor Professor Abdul Muthalib ready to show 270 million citizens that the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine Sinovac was OK.
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The Matthew Fisher Sarcoma Research Fund
My granddaughter Naomi’s husband, Matt Fisher, died of an aggressive sarcoma cancer earlier this month. He was aged 39. The sarcoma was diagnosed in February last year.
A research fund has been established to promote research at the Garvan Institute.
Would you consider making a donation? Click here.
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Barriers to the NDIS
The planned introduction of independent assessments for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will further disadvantage those with complex and not obviously manifest disabilities. For marginalised people with disabilities there are questions. (more…)
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No Plan PM: how government’s lack of an aged care plan cost lives. Typically the PM then blamed others.
While the federal government indulged in semantics, Covid-19 deaths continued to rise in the woefully under-prepared residential aged care sector. 2020 was a horror year for older people living in residential aged care.
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China’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’: A global charm offensive. Winning hearts and minds!
As wealthy countries scramble to buy up the limited supply of big-name coronavirus vaccines, China is stepping in to offer its homegrown jabs to poorer countries. But the largesse is not entirely altruistic, with Beijing hoping for a long-term diplomatic return. (more…)
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Are surgeons just a little bit less careful when operating on their birthdays?
‘Yes, if you think the op’s necessary, Doc, of course I’ll have it. Just so I know, are there any risks? And how long will I be in hospital? Thanks, see you in theatre. Oh, by the way, you won’t be operating on me on your birthday, will you, Doc?’
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It is foolhardy, indeed downright irresponsible, to have spectators at cricket and tennis matches this summer
The basic imperative for controlling an epidemic wherein the inhalation of aerosolised viral particles can cause much illness and death, is to stay away from each other.
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The shabby treatment of nurses by medical doctors.
A collection of recent articles about the dismissal of the key role of nurses by the Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce. The doctor dominated Taskforce is determined not to understand that nurses hold the health system together (more…)
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Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 2
If there is a “brotherhood of man” now is the time for it to manifest itself as we respond to the enormous challenge involved in overcoming the inequity that could stop us winning the struggle with a deadly virus. Of course in helping the less fortunate we will be helping ourselves.
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Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 Pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 1
At a meeting recently in Texas the chairman of the International Association for the Promotion of SARS viruses addressed an enthusiastic audience. Representatives of all strains of COVID-19 currently having their way with humans were present. “How much better is this than being confined to a dingy cave resting in a Bat”, he laughed. “How smart we were to pick a host whose behaviour is helping us to multiply and see the world?”. (more…)
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Is the Darwin Dan Murphy’s Woolworths a Juukan Gorge moment?
As time has passed, opposition to Woolworths’ plans for a massive alcohol store near three dry Indigenous communities in Darwin has strengthened and become more vociferous. Even with the assistance of a pliant Northern Territory Government, approval of this shocking plan remains in doubt.
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Nurse Practitioners must be recognised by the Medical Benefits Schedule
For the sake of improved nationwide health care delivery, in its eventual response to the MBS Review, we sincerely hope that government is able to demonstrate an enlightened approach to the role of Nurse Practitioners in Australia.
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Surely pre-senile dementia is too high a price to pay for sporting glory
Watching 22-year-old cricketer Will Pucovski collapse after a rock-hard ball travelling at more than 100mph smashed into the side of his head was literally sickening. The ninth time he would be diagnosed as having concussion, the cumulative damage to his brain could be very serious.
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What is the fate of the MBS Review Task Force and its work? (Croakey Dec 21, 2020)
Five years in the making, the Final Report of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Task Force was quietly released last week. Associate Professor Lesley Russell outlines the wide-ranging findings and how they are likely to shape the future of the MBS.
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Let’s all shout out for our nurses in 2021
During COVID-19, it is the nurses who are predominantly in the front line. Doctors can come into a ward, see patients and then move on. The nurses stay there. They are the ones most exposed to infection. They put their lives on the line. And they are true professionals, to be valued and respected. Let’s celebrate them
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Health Professionals during the pandemic
In a short period of time the coronavirus crisis has disrupted most aspects of Australian life – the economy, our social and cultural activities, education, health, and transport. It is becoming exceedingly clear to the public the extraordinary role that doctors, and nurses have played during this pandemic.
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The global effort by anti-vaxxers to destroy confidence in Covid-19 vaccines
With the global effort to immunise 8 billion people leaving the station the challenges involved are immense. (more…)