Category Archives: Health

Nine airs 60 minutes investigation that Sydney cosmetic surgeon tried to block in court

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NSW supreme court dismisses Dr Joseph Ajaka’s application to force Nine Entertainment to hand over draft story by journalist Adele Ferguson

Nine has broadcast its 60 Minutes investigation into a prominent cosmetic surgeon on Thursday night after Dr Joseph Ajaka lost his second legal attempt to have the program hand over draft copies before it aired.

The New South Wales supreme court dismissed a second application from Ajaka for Nine Entertainment to hand over copies of its investigation by the award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson.

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England going smoke-free by 2030 depends on No 10 willpower

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Analysis: The question is not what is in the Khan review but whether its recommendations will be implement

• Plan to raise smoking age to 21 to be unveiled amid cabinet splits

While much has been made recently of the danger posed by soaring obesity levels, tobacco remains the biggest public health threat the world has ever faced.

Despite its risks being known for decades, 1.3 billion people globally still use tobacco products. They kill 8 million people every year, and more than one million of whom die from exposure to second-hand smoke.

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‘Overdiagnosis’: some breast cancer treatments may have been unnecessary, study suggests

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Exclusive: Patients tell of screening and surgery they believe they didn’t need, and the effect this has had on their lives

When Jenny* had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she believed the major surgery to remove her breast, although traumatic, had saved her life.

She described feeling “rage” when at a follow-up appointment three years later, she said to her surgeon, “I would probably be dead by now” if she had not received the surgery, to which he replied: “Probably not.”

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NHS bosses fear DHSC will use bullying report to blame leadership

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Department of Health and Social Care press release cited negative behaviours but not findings of political pressure

Bullying, discrimination and shifting the blame when things go wrong are rife in the NHS, a government-commissioned inquiry into health service leadership has found.

But NHS England bosses are fearful that Sajid Javid will use the report’s findings selectively to paint an unfair picture of the behaviour of senior managers.

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White NHS nurses twice as likely as black and Asian colleagues to be promoted – study

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Research by Royal College of Nursing suggests racism is ‘endemic’ in health and care

White nurses are twice as likely as black and Asian colleagues to be promoted in the NHS, with minority ethnic staff overlooked due to structural racism, according to research.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said its study suggests racism is “endemic” in health and care. A survey of almost 10,000 nursing staff found that those who are white or of a mixed ethnic background are more likely than black and Asian colleagues to have received at least one promotion since the start of their career.

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Gel that repairs heart attack damage could improve health of millions

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Injectable, biodegradable technology developed by UK team works as a scaffold to help new tissue grow

British researchers have developed a biodegradable gel to repair damage caused by a heart attack in a breakthrough that could improve the health of millions of survivors worldwide.

There are more than 100,000 hospital admissions every year due to heart attacks in the UK alone – one every five minutes. Medical advances mean more people than ever before survive, with 1.4 million Britons alive today after experiencing a heart attack. But hearts have a very limited ability to regenerate, meaning survivors are left at risk of heart failure and other health problems.

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Minimum alcohol price ‘causes poorest to cut back on food’ in Scotland

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Some problem drinkers also reducing heating to afford rising alcohol costs, according to Public Health Scotland

Scotland’s minimum alcohol pricing policy has not encouraged problem drinkers to consume less but has prompted some to cut back on food or heating in order to afford rising costs, according to the first evaluation of its impact on those who drink alcohol at harmful levels.

The Scottish National party’s flagship policy, championed by Nicola Sturgeon when she was health minister and introduced after successive court challenges by the Scotch Whisky Association, came into force in May 2018. It introduced a legally enforced minimum price for all alcoholic drinks of 50p a unit and aimed to tackle chronic alcohol abuse by targeting low-cost, high-strength drinks.

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Polio outbreak in Pakistan worsens as eighth child reported paralysed

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Investigation launched as first cases in a year blamed on vaccine refusal fuelled by clerics and falsification of records by parents

Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign is in disarray after an alarming jump in cases last week. Eight polio cases have now been reported in children over the past month in North Waziristan district, bordering Afghanistan. They are the first cases in more than a year.

This new outbreak, officials believe, is due to parents falsely marking themselves and their children as vaccinated, and the government has launched an investigation into the outbreak.

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‘Demoralised’ nurses being ‘driven out’ of profession, RCN survey finds

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Only a quarter of shifts have the planned number of registered nurses on duty, according to Royal College of Nursing report

Only a quarter of nursing shifts have the planned number of registered nurses on duty, a survey of more than 20,000 frontline staff has suggested.

According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), most nurses warn that staffing levels on their last shift were not sufficient to meet the needs of patients, and that some are now quitting their jobs.

The RCN said the findings shone a light on the impact of the UK’s nursing staff shortage, warning that nurses were being “driven out” of their profession.

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My Health Record: after 12 years and more than $2bn, hardly anyone is using digital service

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Research shows many Australians find medical records not uploaded and clinicians fail to see benefits of using the national online database

Twelve years after the introduction of My Health Record, Australians are struggling to access their medical information, while clinicians report frustrating difficulties uploading and finding vital health details such as pathology results and diagnostic tests.

The latest annual report from the Australian Digital Health Agency shows just 2.69 million of the 23 million people registered for a My Health Record accessed it in 2020-21. While this is an increase of 14% from the previous year, it was largely driven by people accessing Covid-19 vaccination records and Covid-19 test results.

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Sleep-deprived medical staff ‘pose same danger on roads as drunk drivers’

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British anaesthetist pleads for doctors and nurses to be allowed naps and limited night shifts, as in other critical workplaces

About half of all hospital doctors and nurses have had accidents or experienced near misses while driving home after a night shift.

The risks they pose to themselves and other road users have been calculated as the same as those posed by drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit, delegates at a European medical conference were told last week.

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Deborah James describes anger and fear over dying of bowel cancer

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Campaigner says death is ‘life’s last taboo’ and that she hopes talking about may bring comfort to others

Deborah James has said she is angry at the fact she is terminally ill, and scared of dying.

The campaigner, 40, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and has documented her experiences since on social media, revealed that in the weeks since moving to end-of-life care she keeps “shouting at people and pushing them away”.

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Albanese honours Queen amid jubilee celebrations; up to seven monkeypox cases detected; 59 Covid deaths reported – as it happened

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Prime minister renames island in Lake Burley Griffin to honour monarch’s 70 years of service to Australia. This blog is now closed

Brisbane’s new Greens MPs set their sights on the suburbs

Brisbane’s new Greens MPs talk about the moments they “flipped” voters – the driveway conversions of climate unbelievers or hostile folks who had only ever supported the major parties.

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Let doctors use MDMA to treat veterans with PTSD and depression, former ADF boss says

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Chris Barrie says he hopes common sense will prevail and the TGA will allow drug to be more readily used to treat patients

The former chief of the Australian defence force, Chris Barrie, is campaigning to remove barriers stymying doctors from using MDMA to treat veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, saying he hopes “common sense is going to prevail”.

Late last year, the Therapeutic Goods Administration decided against downgrading the classification of psilocybin or MDMA as a prohibited substance to a controlled substance, a move which would have increased patient access.

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Dismissal of women’s health problems as ‘benign’ leading to soaring NHS lists

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Exclusive: Gender bias means debilitating gynaecological conditions are played down, says RCOG president

Doctors’ routine dismissal of women’s debilitating health problems as “benign” has contributed to gynaecology waiting lists soaring by 60% to more than half a million patients, a senior health leader has said.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) president, Dr Edward Morris, told the Guardian that waiting lists for conditions such as endometriosis, prolapse and heavy bleeding had increased by a bigger proportion than any other area of medicine in the past two years.

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Criminal acts of violence at UK GP surgeries almost double in five years

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Doctors say violence now commonplace as surgeries struggle to cope with ‘unmanageable levels of demand’

Criminal acts of violence at GP surgeries across the UK have almost doubled in five years, new figures reveal, as doctors’ leaders warn of a perfect storm of soaring demand and staff shortages.

Police are now recording an average of three violent incidents at general practices every day. Staff are facing unprecedented assaults, abuse and aggression by patients, with surgeries struggling to cope with “unmanageable levels of demand” after years of failure to recruit or retain sufficient numbers of family doctors.

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GPs tell of ‘appalling’ abuse as violence at UK surgeries worsens

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Doctors say staff ‘afraid and at risk’ of patient violence and aggression as services come under pressure

The number of violent incidents at general practices in the UK recorded by the police has almost doubled in the last five years, according to an investigation by the BMJ.

GP leaders say “appalling” assaults, harassment and other forms of abuse aimed at doctors and their staff have worsened during the pandemic, as surgeries came under growing pressure and sections of the media perpetuated the false notion that services were “closed”.

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Three jabs best for preventing Covid infections, global analysis finds

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Number of doses, not vaccine combinations, key to boosting immunity, according to largest study of its kind

Three doses of the same Covid-19 vaccine or a combination of jabs work equally well in preventing infections, according to the largest study of its kind.

While the effectiveness of individual coronavirus vaccines is well known, the evidence around combinations of jabs has been less clear, especially for particular groups such as older people and those who are immunocompromised.

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UK sperm donor with genetic condition banned from contacting children

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Judge says James MacDougall, 37, was not upfront about fragile-X syndrome and should not meet some of those he fathered

A man with an incurable genetic condition who advertised his sperm to lesbians on social media has been banned from contacting some of the children he fathered as a result.

A family court judge took the unusual step of naming James MacDougall after finding he “took advantage of these young women’s vulnerability and their strong desire to have children”.

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Shortage of diabetes medication Ozempic after TikTok users promote drug for weight loss

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TGA urges GPs to limit prescriptions to approved use for diabetes management amid surge in off-label demand

GPs are being asked to prioritise the diabetes medication Ozempic for people with the condition, after TikTok users began touting it as a weight loss treatment.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration earlier this month issued a joint statement with several medical bodies confirming a shortage of the injectable semaglutide medication, manufactured by Dutch pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, due to “unexpected increase in consumer demand”.

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