Category Archives: Health

Victoria’s major parties look to contingency funds as part of election commitment costings

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Both Labor and the Coalition claim they could achieve forecast surpluses after releasing their costings

Victoria’s major parties have released the costings of their promises – despite the Coalition initially being unable to quantify the total amount committed and Labor’s document not providing timelines to provide major health and transport projects.

Less than two days out from Saturday’s election, the parties have also revealed they intend to draw on contingency funds – which are usually set aside to cover unforeseen circumstances – in order to prop up the state’s finances and achieve budget surpluses.

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Gene therapy at $3.5m a dose approved for US adults with hemophilia B

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Hemgenix frees patients from repeated treatments but initial cost makes it most expensive medicine in the world

US drug regulators have approved a one-off gene-therapy treatment for adults with the genetic blood disorder hemophilia B that frees patients from repeated treatments but costs $3.5m a dose, making it the most expensive medicine in the world.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CSL Behring’s hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix on Tuesday. It cuts the number of bleeding events expected over the course of a year by over half, a study found, and reduces 94% of patients from the need for regular infusions to control the condition.

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Severely ill refusing sicknotes as they cannot afford time off, says GPs’ head

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Exclusive: Doctors suffering ‘moral distress’ at their powerlessness to help most vulnerable, says head of the Royal College of GPs

Ill patients are refusing sicknotes from their GP because they cannot afford time off work, while physicians suffer “moral distress” at their powerlessness to do more to help the most vulnerable, the new leader of Britain’s family doctors has revealed.

More patients are experiencing asthma attacks or other serious breathing problems because they cannot afford to heat their homes, said Dr Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, while many have reported deteriorating mental health due to financial stress.

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Fauci urges Americans to get Covid shot, as study finds new booster is best yet

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The latest booster shots provide better protection than original vaccines, CDC data shows ahead of health official’s retirement

In his last appearance at the White House podium, Anthony Fauci urged Americans to get the latest Covid shot as a new study showed that the latest boosters offer better protection against new variants than previous shots.

Fauci appeared ahead of his retirement next month as America’s top public health official. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, Fauci became a household name as the public face of the US government’s response to the pandemic.

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Malta drafts law allowing abortion if mother’s life or health at risk

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Proposal follows outrage after pregnant US tourist was denied abortion despite partial miscarriage and threat to her health

Malta’s government has published a draft law that would ease the country’s strict abortion laws by allowing the termination of pregnancies if the mother’s life or health are at serious risk.

The proposed change in the law follows an outcry over the treatment of a pregnant American tourist in June, a case that sparked headlines worldwide.

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Rishi Sunak is registered with private GP practice offering £250 consultations

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Campaigners say poorest people will suffer most as NHS is ‘neglected and private practice becomes the norm’

Rishi Sunak is registered with a private GP practice that guarantees that all patients with urgent concerns about their health will be seen “on the day”.

The west London clinic used by the prime minister charges £250 for a half-hour consultation and, unlike most NHS GPs across the country, offers appointments in the evenings and at weekends, as well as consultations by email or phone that cost up to £150.

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Budget for 40 new NHS hospitals faces real-terms cut of £700m, say Lib Dems

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Capital budget of £12bn a year to shrink to £11.7bn, putting Tories’ claim 40 hospitals in England will be built or renovated in doubt

Plans by the government to construct and renovate 40 hospitals in England could be delayed because of new analysis suggesting the health and social care department’s capital spending budget faces a real-terms cut of £700m next year, according to the Liberal Democrats.

With some hospitals said to be in dire need of repair, the health secretary twice refused to say on Sunday that the NHS was functioning properly and instead admitted it was under “severe pressure”.

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Flood warnings in Victoria and NSW – as it happened

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Birmingham against a windfall tax for oil and gas companies

Birmingham says he is opposed to a windfall tax for oil and gas companies to help assist with rising energy prices.

We don’t think that simply slugging a tax in relation to companies is going to do anything for the energy prices of Australians. You’ve got to fix supply in the gas market to provide for genuine outcomes there, and those types of taxes will actually only hurt you in the longer term because they will act as an investment disincentive and you have less supply for the future.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously said limiting global heating to 1.5C as set out in the Paris agreement meant there can be no new oil, gas or coal investment beyond 2021.

A windfall tax is not about shoring up gas supplies, but generating revenue which can re-invested in new renewable energy projects and other decarbonisation projects.

I strongly support recognition and have done for many years and, of course, the debate around the voice has come along subsequent to early efforts to try to achieve Indigenous recognition. When it comes to the model for the Voice, I do think Australians deserve to see more detail and have more answers about how it will work, how it will be constituted and how it will make a difference. I understand the very passionate views by those who argue for the voice and I don’t wish to see them disrespected in any way, but I also acknowledge that there are strong Indigenous views of doubt and question about whether the voice will be actually effective in achieving any substantial change on the ground in relation to Indigenous disadvantage.

We are going to be asked to support a constitutional change for a model that is as undefined by the government in relation to that model. It is not unreasonable to want to see the detail of the model.

An economy growing as strongly as possible, keeping unemployment as low as possible – those are the things that our government managed to achieve, with strong economic growth in our last year in office, with unemployment down to 50-year lows, creating the conditions for economic growth to help to drive productive wages growth.

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Medibank hackers release 1,500 more patient records on dark web, including mental health data

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Company says leak includes details on chronic conditions such as heart disease and people with cancer and dementia

Russian cybercriminals have released a fifth tranche of stolen data from the private health insurer Medibank, including the details of treatment for mental health.

The company’s chief executive, David Koczkar, on Sunday confirmed the hackers, who obtained the records of millions of current and former customers in a ransomware attack last month, had released the details on the dark web.

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Australians warned not to drink home-brewed poppy seed tea after spate of poisonings

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‘I would very definitely lay off the poppy seed tea for the moment,’ academic says

Australians are being warned not to drink poppy seed tea, promoted on popular social media platforms, after a spate of poisoning cases across Australia linked to the home-brewed sedative.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has issued a national recall of poppy seeds due to the potential presence of high levels of thebaine – an opioid alkaloid. The elevated levels of thebaine has been caused by non-food grade poppy seeds incorrectly entering the human food supply chain.

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Sportsbet calls for ban on using credit cards to gamble online as AMA warns of rising harms

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Top bookmaker says use of credit to fund wagering is ‘high risk’ ahead of government inquiry into industry

Online gambling companies could be barred from accepting credit card payments under a proposal backed by leading bookmaker Sportsbet and the nation’s peak banking lobby group, as the federal government probes further restrictions on betting.

The Australian Medical Association meanwhile warned there was “little evidence” current regulation was addressing problem gambling online, raising fears about its growth during the Covid pandemic.

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Plan to cut NHS England elective care backlog at serious risk, watchdog says

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National Audit Office says efforts to reduce record waiting lists under threat amid rising inflation and workforce shortages

Millions of patients could face years of long waits for treatment on the NHS, as a watchdog warned that the plan to reduce extensive waits for elective and cancer care services by 2025 is at serious risk.

NHS England published a three-year plan in February aimed at tackling the backlog in services, after the Covid-19 pandemic saw already long waiting lists grow to record levels. The Department of Health and Social Care is responsible for funding the recovery plan.

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UK has second highest maternal death rate in eight-country European study

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Women in UK three times more likely to die around the time of pregnancy than those in Norway

Mothers in the UK are three times more likely to die around the time of pregnancy compared with those in Norway, according to an international analysis of data.

Although maternal mortality is at historic lows in high-income countries, it remains an important indicator of quality of care, health system performance and, more specifically, maternal care. The comparison of maternal mortality rates in eight European countries was published in the BMJ.

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UK vulnerable to major animal disease outbreaks, report finds

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Inadequate management and underinvestment in main Animal and Plant Health Agency facility has left country at risk, MPs warn

The UK’s main animal disease facility has been left to deteriorate to an “alarming extent” leaving the country vulnerable to major outbreaks on the scale of the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, MPs have warned.

An inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge was “continually vulnerable to a major breakdown” because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had “comprehensively failed” in its management of the site.

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GPs in England to send suspected cancer patients directly for tests

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Scheme starting this month is aimed at improving Britain’s poor record on early diagnosis

All GPs in England will be able to refer suspected cancer patients for tests without them first having to see a specialist under an NHS initiative designed to speed up diagnosis.

The scheme, which starts this month, will let family doctors send patients with potential symptoms straight to have a scan, X-ray or other diagnostic test.

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‘We’ve come such a long way’: Labor’s Jacinta Allan on pushing gender equality forward in Victoria

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The likely successor to Daniel Andrews as party leader says it’s committed to overhauling women’s health statewide – but there’s always more to do

As the likely successor to Daniel Andrews, Jacinta Allan is prepared for a lot of things. But seeing a premier tweeting about tampons was something she could never have fathomed when she was first elected two decades ago.

“We’ve come such a long way in the time I’ve been in parliament,” she says.

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Man admits killing parents after secretly leaving English psychiatric hospital

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William Warrington slipped out of hospital in Gloucestershire and stabbed his mother before taking her car to kill father

A man with paranoid schizophrenia has admitted stabbing his parents to death on the same night in two attacks 15 miles apart, after slipping out of a psychiatric hospital in Gloucestershire.

William Warrington killed his mother, Valerie, 73, a hospital worker, at her home in the Cotswolds village of Bourton-on-the-Water in March. He then drove her car to his father, Clive’s, home in Cheltenham and killed him. Neighbours heard Warrington say “I’m going to enjoy this” as he attacked his father, 67.

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‘I’m not getting better’: Jackie O steps away from radio show to recover from long Covid

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Kyle & Jackie O Show radio host reveals on air she is ‘struggling with this fatigue’ and has received medical advice to stop working

Radio host Jackie O is stepping away from her long-running breakfast show with co-host Kyle Sandilands in order to recover from health issues months after contracting Covid-19.

While presenting the Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM on Monday, Jackie O, real name Jackie Henderson, said she had been struggling to recover after she contracted Covid-19 earlier this year, and that she had received medical advice to stop working in order to address an enduring cough and fatigue.

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TV property presenter Jonnie Irwin reveals he has terminal cancer

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A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country host hopes he can inspire others to ‘make the most of every day’

The TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has revealed he has terminal cancer, saying he hopes sharing his diagnosis will inspire others to “make the most of every day”.

The 48-year-old, who presents Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun and the BBC’s Escape to the Country, said he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain, and that he did not know how much time he had left to live.

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Albanese meets Chinese premier Li Keqiang at summit – as it happened

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Victorian opposition vows to restrict gas produced in the state from being exported in a bid to reduce household bills; Anthony Albanese speaks to Chinese premier Li Keqiang at East Asia Summit gala dinner. This blog is now closed

Two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground Saturday during a Dallas airshow, federal officials said, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.

Officials didn’t immediately make clear how many people were on board the aircraft or if anyone on the ground was hurt. Nonetheless, an ABC News producer – citing reporting from a colleague – said on Twitter that at least six people, all crew members, were feared dead after the crash.

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