Category: Health

Australia’s health “system”, such as it is has two “Achilles’ Heels”. The left one is our lack of emphasis on the prevention of disease while the right one concerns our incompetence in integrating health services in a patient-focused way. Both were on vivid display recently with the release of a new report by the  “Australia’s Oral Health Tracker”. (more…)

Australia has a unique mix of private, public, for profit and NFP stakeholders in its health system. This structure derives significantly from Constitutional issues. Corporate medicine now occupies a significant part of the health landscape. Is this a cause for concern? (more…)

My patients often pay thousands of dollars annually for their cover, but it’s not cost-effective in many cases (more…)

Half of Australians with private health insurance say it is no longer worth the expense, a new survey commissioned by comparison website iSelect has found. (more…)

On Tuesday, March 27^th the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance (AHCRA) is hosting the 8^th National Health Reform Summit in Canberra.  This biennial event brings together organisations, experts and individuals working to improve Australia’s health system.  This year’s Summit has a theme of Equity, Efficiency and Sustainability and will focus on developing positions on key health reform issues in the lead-up to the next federal election.  Registrations for this event and the associated Advocacy and Communications Workshop are still open at www.healthreform.org.au    (more…)

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), comprising more than 16,000 medical specialists, advises governments on matters of health and medical care, and has a respected voice in the community. However, its raison d’être is to train specialist physicians. 8,000 aspiring physicians are now in training. Assessing their road-worthiness includes a high-stakes, high-stress, ‘barrier’ examination. 

This year’s exam, offered at 20 centres in Australia and New Zealand, was computer-based.It was a debacle. (more…)

There is now indisputable evidence that the criminalisation of drug use causes significant harm to people who use drugs, their families and the wider community. Even the United Nations has conceded that the ‘War on Drugs’ has failed to curb drug use, increased the spread of blood-borne viruses including Hepatitis C, and seen a burgeoning criminal drug market flourish. (more…)

Australia 21, a respected, independent, public policy, research and ‘think tank’ focused, organisation   is hosting its fourth roundtable forum on the issue of Australia’s illicit drugs policy, on 21 March 2018 at Victoria’s Parliament House. (more…)

Gambling reform has been in the headlines lately – perhaps more than at any time since the Wilkie-Gillard agreement was shot down by ClubsNSW between 2010 and 2012. (more…)

In a piece published in the Medical Journal of Australia in December 2014, I called for an end to the artificial medical/dental divide. At the same time, writing in The Conversation, I outlined six first steps towards the better integration of dental and medical care to improve health outcomes and contain overall health care spending. My thoughts then are applicable today, especially in light of additional data and information that has emerged over the past three years. (more…)

Recent articles by John Menadue on health costs in Australia have emphasised the high fees charged by private procedural medical specialists. In a paper to be published next month (McLaren, N., “ECT in Context,” Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, April 2018), I examine costs associated with the use of ECT (electroconvulsive treatment) in psychiatry. This is a short version of that paper.   (more…)

Two roads converge in a yellow wood when it comes to preventing obesity – blaming the victim (eat less sugar, exercise more, you lazy sloth) and thinking that if we focus on children all will be well.  Follow either and you will end up in the same sulphurous place – lost. (more…)

 This week I posted an article ‘Health Ministers may be in office but they are seldom in  power’  I pointed out how doggedly and often quite selfishly the provider institution-  mainly the AMA, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Medicines Australia and the parasitical Private Health Insurance funds-resist  almost all health reform unless it benefits provider interests. The public, patients and the community run a poor last. (more…)

Imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages has become the go-to policy for health and medical advocates wanting an effective population-wide intervention to deal with the world’s growing problem of obesity and poor diet. (more…)

The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform.  It is a very sorry story. Any Minister, Liberal or Labor who wants to reform health must be prepared to take on the providers.  Otherwise, we can forget serious health reform.  (more…)

This “fair go mate” country of ours is wealthy but in reality ever less egalitarian. Increasing Inequity is palpable and most notable in the problems we have with housing, education and health. Health outcomes for Individuals are increasingly dependent on personal financial wellbeing. Australians are spending about 30 billion dollars a year to supplement the care available from our universal health care system. Many, of course, do not have the resources to to cover “out of pocket” expenses. Many of these problems have become chronic as political intransigence inhibits the development of bold, informed and even courageous policies. Policy development, such as it is, is often insular, ignoring the successful tactics of other countries in addressing similar problems. The Commonwealth Fund, which compares the worlds health systems for quality, is critical of our efforts to swing our health system around to focus on the prevention of disease. Eleven other OECD countries are currently doing a better job than we are.How can we change this unsatisfactory situation? PART 3. (more…)

This “fair go mate” country of ours is wealthy but in reality ever less egalitarian. Increasing Inequity is palpable and most notable in the problems we have with housing, education and health. Health outcomes for Individuals are increasingly dependent on personal financial wellbeing. Australians are spending about 30 billion dollars a year to supplement the care available from our universal health care system. Many, of course, do not have the resources to cover “out of pocket” expenses. Many of these problems have become chronic as political intransigence inhibits the development of bold, informed and even courageous policies. Policy development, such as it is, is often insular, ignoring the successful tactics of other countries in addressing similar problems. The Commonwealth Fund, which compares the world’s health systems for quality, is critical of our efforts to swing our health system around to focus on the prevention of disease. Eleven other OECD countries are currently doing a better job than we are. How can we change this unsatisfactory situation? PART 2 of 3. (more…)

In hospital this week after surgery, I learnt some things I already half knew. That I don’t cope well with pain, that time slows down in the middle of the night, (I swear I saw the hands of the clock in ICU move backwards sometime after 3am) and that nurses are a most precious resource, more valuable to our nation than iron ore and more deserving of recognition and celebration than our Test cricket team. Then I read the Herald’s warnings about a long-term recruitment crisis in nursing and was disturbed by the news that nurses were virtually priced out of certain areas of Sydney due to house prices. We ignore these warnings at our peril. (more…)

Patient safety in acute hospitals is often described in limited terms such as infection rates and pressure areas without considering that many people gain little or no benefit from being admitted there in the first place. We also ignore the impact on patient safety when management make decisions such as closing hospital wards, prolonging waiting lists and reducing front line health care delivery. (more…)

You won’t believe it, but my birthday was on Tuesday and I got a present from the federal government. I also got a card from my state member, sending his “very best wishes” for reaching such an “important milestone” in my life. (more…)

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Last week’s landmark report on personalised medicine plays down potential for harm and oversells uncertain benefits. (more…)

One in every nine patients who go into hospital in Australia suffers a complication: when something preventable goes wrong with their care. They might develop an infection from a hygiene breach, for instance, or be given the wrong dose or type of drug. (more…)