Pharmacists to get prescription powers in NSW ‘game-changer’ trial that GPs call ‘madness’

The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said allowing pharmacies to prescribe vaccinations and other medications would mean better access to healthcare

New South Wales residents will soon be able to get vaccinations and some treatments prescribed at their local chemist, in a move a doctors’ group has slammed as “madness”.

It mirrors a similar trial under way in Queensland, and practices in other countries such as the UK and Canada.

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UK breakthrough on lung cancer helps target patients at risk of relapse

Research programme buys doctors crucial time by spotting returning tumours before symptoms appear

Seven years ago, Kelly Harrop was working at a stables while also running regularly in half marathons and 10k races. Then she began to suffer digestive problems. Scans eventually revealed marks on her lungs. The subsequent diagnosis was direct. “I had lung cancer. It was a shock. I was fit, healthy and had never smoked,” she told the Observer.

Kelly had surgery to remove the tumour, followed by chemotherapy. But doctors knew there was a risk of the tumour reappearing, so they enrolled her in a new research programme, TRACERx. Funded by Cancer Research UK, the £14m project was set up 10 years ago to investigate how lung tumours arise and evolve. A total of 850 patients with early-stage lung cancer were studied and followed from diagnosis to treatment.

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A night of ‘hell’: abortion activists on their ‘inhumane’ detention in DC

As abortion rights are rolled back, more citizens seeking access to reproductive healthcare may face similar treatment

Three women who peacefully protested against restrictions on abortion rights in the US supreme court were mistreated and detained in “inhumane” conditions after their arrest, they say.

Their experience shows unsettling treatment in a landscape where pregnant people, medical providers and others increasingly face criminalization after the Dobbs decision on reproductive care.

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Majestic Princess: cruise ship passengers disembark in Sydney after mass Covid outbreak

Covid-positive passengers told to stay away from public transport after biggest single outbreak since Ruby Princess

The Majestic Princess cruise ship – carrying about 800 Covid-19 positive passengers – has docked in Sydney and passengers have disembarked in the city.

The ship docked at Circular Quay early Saturday morning, having sailed from New Zealand. It will depart Sydney for Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.

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Hunt dismisses Kwarteng’s claim that mini-budget not to blame for state of UK finances – UK politics live

Latest updates: chancellor says ‘we’ve learned that you can’t fund spending or borrowing without showing how you are going to pay for it’

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has released polling suggesting that half of Londoners are either “financially struggling” (18%) or “just about managing” financially (32%).

According to the polling, 49% of Londoners are also using less water, energy or fuel.

This shocking new polling highlights the realities of the worst cost of living crisis in generations.

With spiralling inflation and soaring interest rates meaning many Londoners are struggling to make ends meet – a situation made worse by the government’s failed mini-budget – the chancellor has a duty to take decisive action on Thursday to support vulnerable Londoners.

In total, the NHS paid more than £3bn to agencies who provide doctors and nurses on short notice. The figure represents a 20% rise on last year, when the health service spent £2.4bn. Trusts spent a further £6bn on bank staff, when NHS staff are paid to do temporary shifts, taking the total spent on additional staff to around £9.2bn.

One in three NHS trusts paid an agency more than £1,000 for a single shift last year, while one in every six trusts paid more than £2,000, results from freedom of information requests reveal.

Taxpayers are picking up the bill for the Conservatives’ failure to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years. This is infuriating amounts of money paid to agencies, when patients are waiting longer than ever for treatment.

Labour will tackle this problem at its root. We will train the doctors and nurses the NHS needs, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.

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Covid cases surge nationally as ‘fourth wave’ hits – as it happened

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Albanese on Xi Jinping: ‘we will no doubt be at the same meetings’

Will Anthony Albanese meet with China’s president Xi Jinping in the coming week? He’s staying mum.

What I want to see with the relationship with China is cooperation where we can, but we of course will maintain our Australian values where we must. So dialogue is always good, a meeting is not locked in at this point in time. But we will no doubt be at the same meetings. The East Asia summit, the G20, and Apec is going to be a busy time in international diplomacy.

Now this act is just disgusting, targeting women who have had a pregnancy termination is about as cowardly as you can get.

I just want to say to those women this morning, we hear you, we are with you, and we love you. If you need help, please reach out and we are absolutely determined to target the criminals who have done this disgusting act.

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Covid-19 case numbers exploding across Australia as fourth wave takes off

Chief health officers urge people to take up protective measures as Covid hospitalisations double in some states

The number of active Covid cases has exploded across the country as Australia enters its fourth wave, prompting renewed warnings to protect vulnerable aged care residents.

Jurisdictions collectively recorded more than 58,000 new cases of Covid in the past week, with some states reporting a doubling in the number of people hospitalised with the virus.

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Rise in back pain and long-term sickness linked to home working – ONS

Sharp rise in people leaving labour market in past three years could be related to home working since Covid

Back and neck injuries caused by working from home during the Covid pandemic has been identified by the UK’s official number crunchers as a possible factor contributing to a sharp rise in people leaving the labour market over the past three years.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a marked increase in disabilities often associated by medical experts with excessive screen use, after the increase in the number of people home working while offices were shut during the pandemic.

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Australia gives world-first approval for faecal transplants to restore gut health

BiomeBank in Adelaide collects healthy genetic material from the microbiomes of donors to treat potentially deadly bacterial condition

Australia has given regulatory approval for faecal transplants, the first country in the world to do so.

For such a transplant, poo donors – who have to meet a list of conditions – provide healthy genetic material from their microbiomes. The microbes are collected and delivered into the gastrointestinal tract of an unhealthy person, where they have been shown to treat conditions such as the potentially deadly bacteria Clostridium difficile colitis (C diff).

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Australia news live: Medibank hacker demands ‘US$1 per customer’ ransom; ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in navy patrol boats

Defence officials say there is an issue with hydrogen sulphide in the vessels’ waste systems. Follow the day’s news live

Coalition’s staff cap has fuelled lack of payment integrity, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to criticise the NDIS staff cap implemented by the Coalition government:

When there were 180,000 participants in the scheme, the staff numbers were around 3,500 to 4,000. And the government of the day said, ‘OK, no more staff.’

Now the scheme has half a million people-plus, and what’s happened is that we’ve brought in contractors or labour hire or partners in the community and the scheme hasn’t been well, in my opinion, supervised and well loved.

I don’t blame someone for seeking to get support for the child. What does make me wonder is the state school systems providing the support for kids with developmental and learning delays? Are they doing enough or not? How can you force their hand to do it so that these people aren’t going on the NDIS?

Originally, when the NDIS was created, it was to be a 50/50 split, at the moment the federal government is paying 64% to 66% of the scheme and states are paying in the mid 30s.

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UK economy being held back by worsening health of British public, Andy Haldane warns

RSA chief executive says more than a century of progress was now going into reverse

The worsening health of the British people is holding back economic growth for the first time since the Industrial Revolution after years of underinvestment in services, Andy Haldane has warned.

The chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) said more than a century of progress on health and wellbeing was going into reverse, with a direct impact on the economy and the cost of living emergency.

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Nurses across UK vote to go on strike for first time in dispute over pay

NHS braces for prolonged period of industrial action by health workers over the winter and into next year

Nurses have voted to stage strikes across the UK for the first time in their history in pursuit of a better pay deal, in a move that will seriously disrupt NHS care.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Wednesday that nurses at many, but not all, hospitals and other places of NHS care would take industrial action before Christmas and could continue striking until next May.

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Coalition complains of ‘witch-hunt’ during question time – as it happened

Federal government paying contractor $900,000 for review of naval shipbuilding

The federal government is paying a contractor $900,000 to carry out a new review of naval shipbuilding issues with the findings due by January.

Australia has the expertise and capability. What we don’t have yet is the scale to deliver the graduates and skills in the quantities required …

I’m here to tell you today is that whatever submarine design ends up being chosen, we won’t be able to build and operate it locally unless we address the fundamental issue of Australia’s workforce capability gap.

Nuclear science should clearly be the first cab off the rank for this program, but this approach will also be necessary across the broader advanced capabilities of Aukus including in cyber and computing, engineering, space and quantum physics.

An Aukus pathways program, jointly developed with Defence, could feature a portfolio of tailored degree programs providing a pathway for students to gain qualifications in an Aukus-related field and then progress to a position in Defence working on Aukus programs.

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Amid warnings of a looming Covid wave, how do Australia’s vaccination rates stack up?

With Australia consistently reporting more than 30,000 Covid cases a week, how does our vaccination rollout compare to similar countries?

Government health officials are warning of a new wave of Covid cases, predicting transmission will increase in coming weeks.

So what does the latest data show for the rollout of vaccinations in Australia, and how do we compare with other countries?

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Pill to prevent pre-eclampsia gets UK fast track for development

Exclusive: MHRA grants innovation passport to drug that could prevent women from developing condition

A new pill that could prevent pre-eclampsia has become the first pregnancy drug to be fast-tracked for development by the UK’s drug regulator.

Scientists at MirZyme Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, believe they have developed a drug that when given to women from 20 weeks of pregnancy could stop them developing the condition.

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Government urged to split IR bill to help low-paid people now – as it happened

Migration system review will focus on process

For those wondering, here is a little more detail on the migration review Clare O’Neil announced this morning.

Accessed the name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address for around 9.7 million current and former customers and some of their authorised representatives. This figure represents around 5.1 million Medibank customers, around 2.8 million ahm customers and around 1.8 million international customers.

Did not access primary identity documents, such as drivers’ licences, for Medibank and ahm resident customers.

Medibank does not collect primary identity documents for resident customers except in exceptional circumstances.

Accessed Medicare numbers (but not expiry dates) for ahm customers. 

Accessed passport numbers (but not expiry dates) and visa details for international student customers.

Accessed health claims data for around 160,000 Medibank customers, around 300,000 ahm customers and around 20,000 international customers.

This includes service provider name and location, where customers received certain medical services, and codes associated with diagnosis and procedures administered.

Additionally, around 5,200 My Home Hospital (MHH) patients have had some personal and health claims data accessed and around 2,900 next of kin of these patients have had some contact details accessed.

Accessed health provider details, including names, provider numbers and addresses.

Did not access health claims data for extras services (such as dental, physio, optical and psychology).

Did not access credit card and banking details.

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Medibank says it won’t pay ransom for customer data stolen in cyber-attack

‘Limited chance’ such a move would result in return of data or prevent it being published, health insurer chief says

Medibank is refusing to pay a ransom to the alleged hacker who stole data relating to 9.7 million customers because there is no way the organisation can “trust criminals” not to further exploit people, the health insurer’s CEO, David Koczkar, says.

Last month Medibank revealed a hacker using compromised high-level credentials had been able to access the personal information of up to four million customers, including ahm and international student customers.

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Plans in place to deal with strike action by UK’s nurses, government says

Oliver Dowden says Department of Health has ‘well-oiled contingencies’ to manage impact of action

The government has said it has contingency plans for dealing with a strike by nurses amid the growing threat of industrial action in the NHS.

The Observer revealed on Sunday that the biggest nursing strike in NHS history could take place before Christmas after “large swathes of the country” voted for nationwide industrial action. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is due to announce the results of its ballot in the next few days.

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More monkeypox jabs arrive in Australia to boost vaccination rate ahead of WorldPride events

New advertising campaign encourages those at higher risk of infection ‘to look out for symptoms and get vaccinated if eligible’

The federal government has launched a new national advertising campaign to promote monkeypox vaccination to a “post-Covid and vaccine-fatigued audience”.

The health minister, Mark Butler, will also announce on Monday that a second shipment of almost 40,000 vials of the monkeypox vaccine Jynneos has arrived in Australia and will be made available through the states and territories.

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Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action

Exclusive: walkout over pay due to take place before Christmas

The biggest nursing strike in NHS history is set to take place before Christmas after union officials said that “large swathes of the country” had voted for industrial action.

Patients who are already facing record waiting lists are now likely to see operations and appointments delayed or cancelled. This is set to be the first national strike in the history of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

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