Category: Health

Why do we have a problem in recruiting General Practitioners and how can we overcome the shortage? The answer – to quote Aneurin Bevan, the Health Minister in the Post World War II Labour Government: ‘By stuffing their mouth with Gold’. (more…)

I wish to write here in a frank and open way about the way the progression of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) has severely impacted the proceedings of everyday life, I am now 60 years old and the progression is well advanced. I am writing from the standpoint of what those in my profession of sociology would say is “participant observation.” (more…)

There is much hoo-ha following the government’s decision to revert to 10 subsidised psychology sessions from the pandemic-fuelled 20 sessions in place for the last couple of years. (more…)

Proposals to reform how Medicare supports primary care need to take account of the changed ownership structure of general practice as well as changing health needs. (more…)

In our third year of the pandemic while the government sends out bland statements, Covid-19 has not gone away. (more…)

Australia has no national policy to prevent the rising death toll in heatwaves. The provision of insulated and air conditioned housing in many remote communities will take years. In the meantime heat shelters must be urgently provided. (more…)

We are assured by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the G20, and their friends that pandemics pose an existential threat to our survival and well-being. Pandemics are becoming more common, and if we don’t move urgently we will have ourselves to blame for more mass death of the ‘next pandemic.’ (more…)

The national medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), is responsible for the oversight of fifteen different groups of health professionals, covering a total of 825,700 practitioners. AHPRA has become a huge and well-resourced bureaucracy which now has the capacity to ‘pull the wool over the eyes’ of distant and poorly-briefed health ministers whose accountability for the regulator is remote. (more…)

What was in the minds of the originators of the NDIS, of the nature of disability? How did they see the role of the NDIS within existing social, health, and economic, environments? (more…)

Minister for Health Mark Butler has given in to pressure from some media outlets and on 5 November announced an independent review into Medicare compliance to report in four months – a requirement which means it will struggle to deliver on its main terms of reference. (more…)

The budget has seen shock headlines about the increase in NDIS costs. The AFR screamed in its headline “…the NDIS will blow out to $50 billion”. It didn’t mention that this was in nominal terms – but the real increase of 17% over the next four years is serious enough. (more…)

Following the outcome of this year’s Federal Election, Health Minister Mark Butler convened the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce (SMT). (more…)

Suggestions that Medicare is being “rorted” to the extent of $8 billion a year are ridiculous. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for reform in how Medicare pays GPs. (more…)

Vast technological revolutions have improved people’s lives to a phenomenal degree. Do I dare to think about what my life would be like without these positive developments?

(more…)