Category Archives: Health

Paramedics set up units inside A&E to ease long queues

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Experiment in London speeds up handover by emergency ambulance crews to doctors and is safer for patients

Paramedics have begun looking after patients inside an A&E unit, in an initiative by the health service to stop ambulances queueing outside hospitals and ease the strain on overstretched casualty staff.

The scheme has led to patients being handed over much more quickly at a hospital that was one of the worst in England for sick people being stuck, sometimes for many hours, in the back of an ambulance.

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Australia surpasses 10,000 Covid deaths as authorities warn of another wave of infections

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Federal health minister Mark Butler says new BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants increase the risk of reinfection

Australia has surpassed the grim milestone of 10,000 Covid-19 deaths, as authorities urge people to remain vigilant against the disease.

The country’s toll from the virus stood at 9,984 on Saturday, and tipped past the 10,000 mark with Sunday’s numbers.

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Boris Johnson faces investigation into claims over 40 ‘new’ hospitals

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Trusts reveal only five wholly new hospitals planned, as Labour says the scheme ‘exists only in PM’s imagination’

The government’s official spending watchdog is to launch an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s claim that 40 new hospitals will be built by 2030, as concerns grow in Whitehall that the pledge is unaffordable and has been greatly oversold to the public.

In a move that could prove hugely embarrassing for the prime minister, the independent National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to conduct a “value for money review” into the entire scheme, which was a cornerstone of the Conservative party’s 2019 general election manifesto.

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End of special Covid leave for NHS staff in England branded ‘unacceptable’

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British Medical Association says move will put patients and healthcare workers in England at significant risk

Scrapping special Covid leave for NHS staff is “completely unacceptable” and will put patients and healthcare workers at significant risk, the British Medical Association has warned.

From 7 July the government plans to withdraw the special paid leave for Covid-related sickness and isolation for NHS staff in England, meaning they will revert to normal contractual sick pay arrangements.

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Texas supreme court blocks order that allowed abortions to resume

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New decision temporarily overturns stay issued by lower court last week, and illustrates legal chaos for US abortion providers

The Texas supreme court on Friday overturned a block on a state abortion ban linked to the recent US supreme court decision reversing Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling granting nationwide rights to abortion.

The order – an emergency motion for temporary relief – ordered parties on both sides of the abortion issue to submit briefings to the court by 7 July on a lawsuit seeking to delay implementation of so-called trigger bans, which would outlaw abortions in Texas in most circumstances.

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Three rescued from flood waters; abortion rights protests; 54 Covid deaths – as it happened

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SES warns of flooding across saturated NSW; airport chaos spreads from Sydney to Melbourne; Anthony Albanese meets Emmanuel Macron in Paris. This blog is now closed

Flights have been cancelled, ticket prices are through the roof and queues are out the door at Sydney airport as travellers looking to jet off have been caught up in more chaos.

More than two million passengers are expected to pass through Sydney airport during the July school holidays and it is not clear whether the airport will be able to handle the massive demand over the coming days.

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Google will delete location history data for abortion clinic visits

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The company said that sensitive places including fertility centers, clinics and addiction treatment facilities will be erased

Alphabet will delete location data showing when users visit an abortion clinic, the online search company said on Friday, after concern that a digital trail could inform law enforcement if an individual terminates a pregnancy illegally.

As state laws limiting abortions set in after the US supreme court decided last month that they are no longer guaranteed by the constitution, the technology industry has fretted police could obtain warrants for customers’ search history, geolocation and other information revealing pregnancy plans.

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Deborah James legacy: huge rise in online checks for bowel cancer signs

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NHS chief says James’s last message to public to ‘check your poo’ is life-saving

There was a tenfold increase in people checking bowel cancer symptoms online immediately after the death of Dame Deborah James, the NHS has said.

More than 23,000 visits were paid to NHS websites for bowel cancer on Wednesday, compared with 2,000 the previous day.

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Vulnerable Australians ‘filled with dread’ over telehealth cuts

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Decision to end a range of services on 30 June will lead to ‘avoidable suffering and distress’, medical practitioners say

Living through Covid-19 with inflammatory arthritis, telehealth has been the only way for Eliza Sorensen to safely access her routine medical appointments.

Sorensen is considered severely immunocompromised due to the medication she takes to control her chronic disease. She also lives with asthma.

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Nation records 33 Covid deaths as Victoria reports fifth monkeypox case – as it happened

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Mark Butler urges Australians to get boosters as new subvariant circulates; nation records 33 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Australia ‘deeply concerned by continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights’

Penny Wong, minister for foreign affairs, released a statement last night saying Australia remains “deeply concerned” by the continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights.

Australia remains deeply concerned by the continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and autonomy, two years since the imposition of the National Security Law.

The National Security Law has been applied broadly to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures, opposition groups, the media, trade unions and civil society. The electoral reforms imposed by Beijing in 2021 have further eroded Hong Kong’s democratic governance.

This will be the fourth time the government has offered to make the changes, announced the changes, and then backtracked as a result of internal politics.

I’m just not sure where we go from here but our members are resolute. We are going to continue fighting to get these trains made safe, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

It’s going to be a very messy day. It’ll be a weekend timetable with other trains taken out of it.

The families of the railway workers right now could be having $3,000 deposited in their account, instead of having that money spent on modifying perfectly good trains.

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UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs warn

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Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standards

The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.

The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK.

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths as SA reports first monkeypox case – as it happened

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths; SA records first monkeypox case; Anthony Albanese meets Justin Trudeau at Nato summit. This blog is now closed

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has renewed his calls for China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world”.

Albanese – who has been in Madrid for a Nato summit – spoke to reporters yesterday after having a meeting on the sidelines with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

There we discussed the important focus of this Nato’s summit on the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the support amongst democratic countries for the rules-based international order and a determination to continue to provide support to the government and the people of Ukraine who are suffering as a result of this breach of international law and this brutal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Vladimir Putin has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world and provide a real determination to make sure that the resilience being shown by the Ukrainian people is backed up by resilience and support from democratic countries, including Nato, but also countries throughout the world.

Well, what we saw is prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw a without-limits partnership between Russia and China. We’ve seen a failure of China to condemn any of the Russian aggression that has occurred against Ukraine. China must look at what is happening and look at the resolve that is there from throughout the world and should be condemning Russia’s actions.

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CDC activates emergency operations unit for monkeypox

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The move signals the initial stages of a public health concern as 306 cases of the virus have been recorded in the US

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has activated an emergency operations unit for monkeypox that signals the initial stages of a public health concern.

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC), was activated on Tuesday to boost operational support for addressing a monkeypox outbreak.

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Knee replacements stall in regions of England with weight rules for patients

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Stricter CCGs told patients that they have to attain a certain body mass index before surgery

The number of knee replacement operations carried out has dropped in regions of England with restrictions on surgery for overweight patients, with people in more deprived areas worst affected, researchers have found.

Patients needing surgery but unable to lose weight are being denied surgery that could ease pain and increase mobility, the team from the University of Bristol said.

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Just 24 health workers helped under Morrison government scheme to bring 2,000 medics to Australia

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Travel program set up by Greg Hunt in 2021 discontinued after two months with two dozen people receiving direct assistance

Just 24 medical practitioners received direct assistance to come to Australia under a travel program announced by the Morrison government which promised to bring an extra 2,000 doctors and nurses into the country.

As Australia faces skills shortages across the health and aged care sectors, information obtained from the Department of Health shows that a program set up by the former health minister Greg Hunt in October last year that promised to bring in an extra 2,000 health practitioners over six months was discontinued after just two months.

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‘Covid has broken us’: warnings of a mass resignation among Victorian paramedics

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Exclusive: 16% plan to look for new jobs according to survey of 348 Ambulance Victoria staff

Bill Briggs had worked as a paramedic for more than three decades when, during Victoria’s second extended Covid lockdown, he “lost the plot”.

“I was just plodding along, doing the job, not getting any complaints from anyone and then I had a disagreement with another paramedic and I just exploded, which is not like me at all,” Briggs says.

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US ramping up monkey pox vaccine distribution to slow down spread

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The government will expand access to and increase supply of two different formulations to contain the infection

The US government is ramping up efforts to staunch the spread of monkeypox by sending hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses to states in the coming months, expanding access for those most at risk and increasing supply to areas with high case numbers.

The plan, announced on Tuesday, involves rapidly expanding access to doses of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine – which has so far been limited – to prevent monkeypox in areas with the highest transmission and need.

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‘Her attitude was a lesson to us all’: tributes pour in for Dame Deborah James

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The presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C ‘saved many lives’ and raised millions of pounds for cancer research

Dame Deborah James has been hailed as an “inspiration” and an “extraordinary campaigner” of “unbelievable tenacity” as tributes poured in for the podcaster and cancer campaigner, who has died at the age of 40.

The mother-of-two had been receiving end-of-life care since May at her parents’ home in Woking, Surrey, after stopping active treatment for the disease. In her final weeks, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised millions of pounds for research and was made a dame for her “tireless” work improving awareness.

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Why US women are deleting their period tracking apps

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Even before the supreme court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the trend to ditch the apps began amid fears of prosecution

Many American women in recent days have deleted period tracking apps from their cellphones, amid fears the data collected by the apps could be used against them in future criminal cases in states where abortion has become illegal.

The trend already started last month when a draft supreme court opinion that suggested the court was set to overturn Roe v Wade was leaked, and has only intensified since the court on Friday revoked the federal right to abortion

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Nation records 75 Covid deaths as data shows fatalities rising since March – as it happened

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Australian Defence Force chiefs to have terms extended; nation records 75 Covid deaths as weekly fatalities double since March. This blog is now closed

The census shows that Christianity remains the country’s most common religion, AAP reports, with 43.9% of Australians identifying as Christian. But the number of followers continues to decline, dropping from 61.1% in 2011 and 52.1% in 2016.

Catholicism is the largest denomination, followed by Anglicanism. Other religions are growing: Hinduism was listed by 2.75% of respondents and Islam grew to 3.2%.

And close to 40% (38.9) have no religious affiliation, up from 22.3% in 2011 and 30.1% in 2016.

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