Category Archives: Health

Melbourne cancer patient went to Adelaide for urgent scan due to ‘miscommunication’, minister says

Posted on by

Victoria’s health minister defends colleague who suggested Kylie Hennessy, who has a brain tumour, ‘roll with the punches’

Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, has claimed a “hospital miscommunication” caused a woman with a brain tumour to travel to Adelaide for an urgent medical scan.

Kylie Hennessy travelled to Adelaide last week for a functional MRI (fMRI) scan after she was told she would face a months-long wait in Melbourne.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Hungary tightens abortion access with listen to ‘foetal heartbeat’ rule

Posted on by

Fears move will pave way for more restrictions in country where terminations are widely accepted

Hungarian women seeking an abortion will be obliged to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure, according to a new decree issued by the government of the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The new regulation is due to come into force on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Obesity-related cancer rates nearly quadruple in Australia over three and a half decades

Posted on by

Researchers call on governments to implement national obesity strategy to help stem further rises in preventable cancers

The rate of obesity-related cancers in Australia has almost quadrupled in a few generations, new research suggests.

Researchers at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture of Cancer Council New South Wales and the University of Sydney, analysed the rate of 10 obesity-linked cancers between 1983 and 2017.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Sam Fender cancels shows to look after his mental health

Posted on by

Singer-songwriter apologises to fans in announcement on Instagram after becoming ‘burnt out’ from touring

Sam Fender has cancelled a number of forthcoming shows and announced he is “taking some time off the road” to look after his mental health, after admitting that he was “burnt out” from touring.

The 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Newcastle posted the announcement on Instagram, saying it would be “completely hypocritical” of him to advocate for discussion of the topic without looking after his own mental wellbeing.

Continue reading...

Step on it! Walking is good for health but walking faster is even better, study finds

Posted on by

Walking briskly is beneficial for all health outcomes including dementia, heart disease, cancer and death

How fast you walk could be just as important for your health as how many steps you take each day, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Southern Denmark found that 10,000 steps each day is the “sweet spot” to help lower the risk of disease and death. They also found that a faster pace, such as a brisk power walk, can have even greater benefits.

Continue reading...

Queen public holiday: Australian business groups express concern over lost revenue and staffing disruptions

Posted on by

Industry bodies join medical association in criticising Albanese government over notice for national day of mourning after death of Queen Elizabeth

Australian retail and business groups have joined the medical association in raising concerns about disruptions caused by the public holiday to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II after her death on 8 September.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, made the announcement on Sunday that a “one-off public holiday” would be held on 22 September as a national day of mourning, after the Queen’s funeral on 19 September.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Governor general proclaims King Charles III as Australia’s head of state – As it happened

Posted on by

Anthony Albanese has set 22 September as National Memorial Service Day for Queen Elizabeth II. This blog is now closed

Howard says the popularity of the Queen was the key reason behind the republican movement failing, but that the monarchy offers stability.

I think there’s also a keener appreciation of the value of the institution and its strength. People look around the world at the moment and the alternative governance systems on offer, everyone in democracies, don’t look all that flash on occasions. I think the strength and durability and flexibility of the constitutional monarchy is something that more people appreciate than is imagined.

That is fair enough. It’s a democracy. People can argue for change. My observation is the strength of the monarchy in Australia was immeasurably increased by the personal popularity of the Queen.

Continue reading...

New York declares disaster emergency after polio detected in several counties

Posted on by

The governor’s latest step is a way to boost low vaccination rates in areas where the virus has been found

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a disaster emergency on Friday and said the state was stepping up its polio-fighting efforts after the virus was detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area.

Health officials began checking for signs of the virus in sewage water after the first case of polio in the US in nearly a decade was identified in July in Rockland county, close to the city.

Continue reading...

Malaria vaccine a step closer as experts urge Truss not to ‘turn off the tap’ on funding

Posted on by

Chance to eradicate diseases such as malaria could be lost and UK innovation squandered if global health investment is cut, jab co-creator tells PM

The co-inventor of a groundbreaking vaccine that could eradicate malaria has implored Liz Truss not to squander cutting-edge UK innovation by “turning off the taps” on global health funding.

Speaking as successful results from the latest trials of the R21 vaccine were revealed, Prof Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, said it would be tragic if Britain cut funding just as scientists were poised to make “a real impact” against malaria.

Continue reading...

Government admits 50 firms were in VIP lane for test and trace contracts

Posted on by

Health department had denied Covid testing priority lane but new disclosure lists firms including lab behind false negatives

The government has admitted that 50 firms were put in a “priority” lane for securing test and trace contracts worth billions, including Immensa, the company involved in a scandal over 43,000 false negative results.

The UK Health and Security Agency revealed the names of the 50 companies to the Good Law Project, the campaigning organisation that successfully challenged the government’s VIP lane for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts in the courts.

Continue reading...

Lewis Capaldi reveals Tourette syndrome diagnosis: ‘It’s something I am living with’

Posted on by

The 25-year-old Scottish singer has been treating the condition with botox injections and says that he is ‘learning new ways to cope all the time’

Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi has revealed that he has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. The 25-year-old star, who broke out with the chart-topping 2018 single Someone You Loved, said on Instagram Live that the diagnosis “makes so much sense”: “When I look back at my interviews from 2018, I can see that I’m doing it,” he said.

The singer said that he chose to go public with the diagnosis because he “didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something,” and noted that he had initially thought it was “some horrible degenerative disease” before he was properly diagnosed. “My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous or stressed,” he said. “It is something I am living with.”

Continue reading...

Anger at plans to roll back Covid vaccines to under-11s in England

Posted on by

Children aged 5-11 will no longer be offered Covid jabs, except those in clinical risk groups, UKHSA confirms

The decision to reduce the number of children who are offered Covid jabs has prompted outcry from parent groups and academics.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), children who had not turned five by the end of last month will not be offered a vaccination. The agency said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy 5-11-year-olds was always going to be temporary.

Continue reading...

Victorian government repeatedly warned of ‘precarious’ situation at triple-zero agency

Posted on by

Government was made aware of Esta’s vulnerable financial position as long ago as 2015

The Victorian government was warned of the “precarious financial position” at the state’s triple-zero call-taking agency about six years before Covid-19 overwhelmed the service and caused delays linked to 33 deaths.

A report by Victoria’s inspector general for emergency management (Igem), Tony Pearce, released on Saturday, identified 40 “potential adverse events” linked to triple-zero delays, lengthy ambulance waits and command decisions at the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta) between December 2020 and May 2022.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Ministers to make it easier for foreign nurses and dentists to work in NHS

Posted on by

Exclusive: change to registration process will pave way for thousands of staff trained overseas to come to UK, says government

Ministers will introduce legislation as soon as parliament returns on Monday to tackle the NHS’s worsening staffing crisis by making it easier for overseas nurses and dentists to work in the UK.

The move is part of a drive by the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to increase overseas recruitment to help plug workforce gaps in health and social care.

Continue reading...

Covid pandemic may be causing more deaths than Australia’s daily numbers suggest

Posted on by

More than 80% of the country’s Covid deaths occurred in 2022, likely in part due to success of early control measures but questions remain

Behind the daily death figures, there is a more complicated picture of the impact of Covid-19 in Australia that raises questions about whether Covid could be causing more deaths from ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and dementia.

As cases exploded after the emergence of the Omicron variant, the number of Covid deaths similarly rose, with more than 80% of Australia’s total Covid deaths occurring in 2022.

Continue reading...

Millions in England to be invited for Covid booster from Monday

Posted on by

NHS launches autumn drive with jabs offered first to care home staff and residents, and housebound people

Millions of care home residents, staff and housebound people in England will be invited for their autumn coronavirus vaccine booster from Monday.

Health teams will visit care homes and private homes to vaccinate about 1.6 million residents, staff and housebound people in the latest phase of the vaccine programme, NHS England has said.

Continue reading...

More than 30 deaths linked to delays at Victoria’s overloaded triple-zero service

Posted on by

Emergency services ‘simply did not have sufficient ambulance call-takers’, with one caller waiting more than 76 minutes, review finds

More than 30 people died after the pandemic overloaded Victoria’s triple-zero call service and caused delays, an independent review has found.

In one case, someone waited for more than 76 minutes for their emergency call to be answered, as the pandemic placed “unprecedented demand” on the system.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Disability royal commission hears of abuse, neglect and fraud in supported residential system

Posted on by

Victorian facility did not breach legislation for failing to afford woman dignity by declaring she was no longer technically a resident because she had died

A Victorian regulator elected not to punish a disability home for failing to afford a 65-year-old woman dignity because her death meant she was “no longer” legally a “resident”, an inquiry has been told.

The disability royal commission, which is examining housing and homelessness issues this week, has spent the past two days investigating the troubled supported residential services (SRS) system.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Labor to relax work tests for pensioners following jobs and skills summit – as it happened

Posted on by

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the policy change will cost around $55m, and the government will do further costs. This blog is now closed

Tasmanian Tafe needs to be fit for purpose before additional places can make a difference, Lambie says

The government yesterday kicked off the jobs and skills summit with the announcement of 180,000 more free Tafe places.

We certainly would like to do more, but some of these issues, of course, are within the budget constraints, which are there … we have inherited $1tn of debt. Yes, it is a worthy idea and worthy of consideration.

No, that’s not on the agenda. But it is a good thing that people are able to put forward ideas.

Continue reading...

Victoria lifts work from home recommendation but public transport mask mandate to stay

Posted on by

State government cites falling Covid case numbers and the end of winter as it announces decision

The Victorian government has lifted its recommendation that people work from home but has vowed to maintain its public transport mask mandate, despite the requirement due to be dropped on domestic flights from next week.

Citing falling Covid case numbers and the end of winter, the state’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said Victorians were now encouraged to cease working from home.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...