Category Archives: Health

ABC misses out on final leaders’ debate; key independents back call for robodebt inquiry – as it happened

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Channel Seven to host final debate of election campaign; crossbenchers back call for royal commission into robodebt scandal; Scott Morrison focuses on cost of living concerns; Anthony Albanese marches for May Day in Brisbane; Sally McManus would support wage increase for public sector workers; 13 Covid deaths recorded across the nation. This blog is now closed

Labor is still on the campaign sell for its first homeowner policy.

Jason Clare faced questions ranging from, “Is this too small to have an impact?” to, “Won’t it drive up house prices?”

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Australian researchers uncover clue to rare and severe response to Covid in children

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Breakthrough could improve diagnosis and lead to development of treatment for condition that has baffled doctors for two years

In the first months after Covid emerged, doctors were baffled by rare and severe responses to the virus in some children, whose symptoms included lung disease, blood clotting and heart damage.

Two years later and researchers led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute [MCRI] in Melbourne have uncovered the proteins involved in these acute inflammatory responses in children.

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AMA welcomes proposed $460m mental health facility in Sydney despite questions over staffing

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New centre in city’s west will bridge ‘really big’ gap between public and private care and must have ongoing funding, medical association says

Plans for a $460m integrated mental health facility in Sydney’s west have been welcomed as a step in the right direction in addressing the “enormous” need for better and fairer care across the state.

But the Australian Medical Association New South Wales head, Dr Danielle McMullen, said the “million-dollar question” was how the complex at Westmead would be staffed, amid ongoing issues of doctor and nurse furloughing and burnout.

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30,000 cancer patients waiting for treatment in England

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Experts call on ministers to tackle chronic staff shortages, with delays worsened by pandemic

Tens of thousands of patients are still waiting to start cancer treatment in England due to disruption during the pandemic, according to NHS figures, as medical charities called on the government to tackle chronic staff shortages in the health service.

Following a dramatic slump in cancer referrals in 2020, the number of people being investigated for the disease bounced back in the past year, data from NHS England and NHS Improvement show, rising from 2.4 million to a record 2.66 million.

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Albanese rallies against ‘fear and division’ at Labor campaign launch – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese and senior Labor members speak at ALP campaign launch in Perth; Scott Morrison speaks at Sydney rally; Coalition outlines e-safety plan; Greens announce LGBTQ+ equality plan; Victoria reports seven Covid deaths; NSW reports five; South Australia reports two. This blog is now closed

Simon Birmingham is pushed on what the Coalition will actually do on the cost of living but there isn’t a clear answer. See this exchange with Insiders host David Speers:

Q: So essentially to get wages going is to keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last nine years?

David, our plan is a comprehensive economic plan and in contrast to the Labor party. We have outlined clearly plans for … that jobs growth. Jobs growth fuelled by lower taxes and tax relief for Australians that continue to be implemented in terms of lower income taxes, support for more businesses.

David, it is a plan that we’ve outlined in quite a lot of detail, compared to ...

If you look at this year’s budget, small business, a particular focus in relation to investment in technology …

The approach we’ve taken is to fix a particular problem in the housing market and that was the fact that you had to save, of course, for your deposit, takes months and months, years and years, to get that 20% deposit to avoid having to pay mortgage insurance, that was meaning that people were having to pay rent at the same time as saving.

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Anthony Albanese pledges to lower cost of PBS medicines and boost EVs at Labor campaign launch

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Opposition leader also vows to make gender equity an objective of the Fair Work Act if ALP wins federal election on 21 May

Labor has promised to reduce the cost of medicines on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, roll out new charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and focus on improving pay equity for women if Anthony Albanese defeats Scott Morrison on 21 May.

The Labor leader used the party’s official election campaign launch in Perth on Sunday to unveil a promise to reduce the cost of drugs on the PBS by $12.50. Albanese told the party faithful gathered at Optus Stadium that meant the maximum price for medicines for millions of Australians would be $30.

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Vulnerable Australians missing out on healthcare as insufficient Medicare rebate drives GP shortage

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Fee-for-service funding model cannot keep up with cost of complex primary care needs, community organisations say

Vulnerable Australians are missing out on adequate healthcare because the Medicare rebate is failing to keep up with the costs of providing services, leading to a critical GP shortage, community health organisations say.

Not-for-profit community health organisation Cohealth has not been able to operate its street doctor service in Melbourne’s CBD – which provides a GP to people sleeping rough – for more than nine months, because it cannot find a doctor to work there.

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Colorado inmate becomes first person in US to test positive for bird flu

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Infection comes amid worst outbreak of the virus in seven years but CDC says health risk to general public remains low

An inmate in Colorado has become the first human in the US to test positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, amid the worst outbreak of the virus in seven years and a cull of millions of poultry in dozens of states.

The unnamed prisoner contracted the infection during a work release assignment at a farm in Montrose county where workers were euthanising an infected flock, the Colorado department of public health and environment said.

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Ethiopian drought leading to ‘dramatic’ increase in child marriage, Unicef warns

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With hunger across Horn of Africa and 600,000 children out of school, ‘desperate’ parents push more girls into early marriage

Drought-afflicted areas of Ethiopia are seeing “dramatic” increases in child marriage as the worst climate-induced emergency for 40 years pushes people to the brink, the head of Unicef has said.

Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought hunger, malnutrition and mass displacement to millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti.

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Coalition pledges to cut medication costs; 53 Covid deaths – as it happened

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Prime minister announces a $10 cut to PBS scripts from next year in an attempt to tackle cost-of-living pressure, while Labor vows to hold a royal commission into the robodebt scandal. This blog is now closed

Now some questions on China’s security deal with the Solomon Islands.

Morrison, asked about the timing of the announcement, says:

We’re very aware of the influence that the Chinese government seeks to have in this country. We, in fact, introduced laws to prevent it. So any suggestion that the Chinese government doesn’t seek to interfere in Australia – well, we didn’t put that legislation in for no reason. We put it in there to ensure that Australian security could be safeguarded from foreign influence in our own country.

The Chinese government would say that, wouldn’t they?

There are temporary measures that we put on the budget, longer term measures in the mid-year statement. It is a fairly common way that we do budgets …

This is a longer term measure and it will start next calendar year. So the reason that we’re talking about it now, normally we would make an announcement like that later in the year.

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Number of UK children suffering from hepatitis rises to 145

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Concerns rise about surge as scientists say lack of exposure to viruses during Covid restrictions could be factor

The number of children in the UK suffering from severe hepatitis has risen to 145 as concerns mount about the mysterious surge in cases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced an increase of 34 cases but said most children have recovered and no children have died. There has been no increase from the 10 children who have required a liver transplant, reported on Monday.

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Cost of living crisis forces UK cancer patients to cut back on food and heating

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Macmillan survey suggests hundreds of thousands of people with cancer struggling to make ends meet

Hundreds of thousands of cancer patients are putting their lives at risk by cutting back on meals, heating and other essentials as a result of the cost of living crisis, a charity has said.

Macmillan Cancer Support said it was “hugely concerning” that large numbers of people living with the disease were having to resort to drastic cost-cutting measures to make ends meet.

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US FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars

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Effort to ‘help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers’ likely to face stiff opposition from big tobacco

The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued a long-awaited proposal to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, a major victory for anti-smoking advocates but one that could dent sales at tobacco companies.

The proposal, which comes a year after the agency announced the plan, still needs to be finalized, and could take years to implement as it is likely to face stiff opposition from big tobacco.

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New investigation into allegations of plagiarism against concussion expert Paul McCrory

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British Journal of Sports Medicine says it is investigating a body of work published by McCrory, its former editor-in-chief

The British Journal of Sports Medicine says it is investigating a body of work published by its former editor-in-chief, neurologist Dr Paul McCrory, in light of “additional allegations of plagiarism” against the world-renowned concussion expert.

The peer-reviewed journal will also review the past four consensus statements published by the global Concussion in Sport Group (CISG), of which McCrory was the lead author, along with a sample of other papers on which he is the first or senior author.

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Victoria stands down 420 public school teachers over vaccine mandates

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About half had failed to get a booster shot before the March deadline and have been placed on unauthorised leave

About 420 public school teachers across Victoria have been stood down for failing to meet Covid vaccination requirements – with the majority of them not working because they haven’t received a third dose.

Despite previous fears of staff shortages in schools, Guardian Australia understands there are 420 full-time-equivalent teachers across Victoria’s public school system who are unable to work as they have not met the state’s vaccination mandate.

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‘Thrown to the wolves’: Covid care home ruling is bitter victory for relatives

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Analysis: The high court found policy that sent untested people into homes was illegal and irrational

This time of year brings bad memories for families of care home residents who died in Covid’s first wave when the virus swept, mostly unchecked, through nursing homes.

Just over two years on, the high court ruling that the government’s hospital discharge policy which sent thousands of people untested into care homes was not only illegal but “irrational”, comes as bitter proof of something they already knew: something went badly wrong.

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‘Unsafe’ UK accommodation threatens asylum seekers’ health – report

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Exclusive: poor healthcare and conditions at sites such as Napier worsen mental and physical illness, Doctors of the World says

Asylum seekers’ accommodation is “unsafe” due to inadequate healthcare, while poor living conditions are exacerbating or creating mental and physical health problems, according to a new report by Doctors of the World.

The charity’s research, published on Wednesday, details the barriers to medical care and medication for asylum seekers in initial accommodation across the UK.

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Thousands of shocking reports reveal extent of Australian aged care residents’ suffering due to understaffing

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More than 6,500 reports of distressed and neglected residents and unsafe conditions the ‘tip of the iceberg’, union says

More than 6,500 reports of understaffing and unsafe conditions in Australia’s aged care sector, including hundreds of reports of resident injuries, will be handed to the regulator on Wednesday.

The reports, from United Workers Union (UWU) whistleblower site Aged Care Watch, identified thousands of instances of aged care residents’ safety suffering due to unfilled shifts and understaffing.

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Women risking their health to source HRT amid shortages, UK GP chief warns

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Exclusive: Women forced to turn to black market or share drugs as concerns rise over mental and physical impact

The hormone replacement therapy (HRT) supply crisis must be resolved quickly because “so many women” are experiencing distress and some are risking serious side effects by using medication prescribed to others, the UK’s most senior GP has warned.

There have been acute shortages of some HRT products, which are used by about 1 million women in the UK to treat symptoms of the menopause. Some women have turned to the black market or are meeting up with other women in carparks to buy, swap or share medicines.

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Sajid Javid urged to relax law as women forced to travel miles to find HRT

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Exclusive: pharmacists say they should be allowed more easily to dispense substitute medicines as shortages take toll in England

Sajid Javid is being urged to change the law to let pharmacists alter prescriptions during medicine shortages, as it emerged that some women are travelling hundreds of miles to seek hormone replacement therapy products.

There have been acute shortages of some HRT products, which are used by about 1 million women in the UK to treat symptoms of the menopause.

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