NSW police allege 42-year-old ‘cut water and gas mains’ at first hospital in Sutherland before switching off gas mains at nearby facility
A woman has been arrested after allegedly sabotaging gas supplies at two Sydney hospitals.
Sutherland hospital in southern Sydney lost medical gases on Tuesday morning, requiring them to switch to portable oxygen and air as part of their contingency plans, the New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, said in a statement
Continue reading...Viewing original works of art can relieve stress, cut heart disease risk and boost immune system, first study of its kind finds
Enjoying original works of art in a gallery can relieve stress, reduce the risk of heart disease and boost your immune system, according to the first study of its kind.
Researchers measured the physiological responses of participants while viewing masterpieces by world-renowned artists including Manet, Van Gogh and Gauguin in a gallery.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing calls on government to stop using anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour
The number of reports by nurses of racist incidents at work has risen by 55% over three years, according to analysis by the nursing union.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) expects to receive more than 1,000 calls this year from nurses seeking advice and support after racist incidents in the workplace, compared with almost 700 cases in 2022.
Continue reading...Experts publish letter as peers prepare to scrutinise draft legislation six months after its second Commons reading
More than 1,200 public health leaders have called for the tobacco and vapes bill to be passed swiftly through parliament to “protect future generations”.
They said in a cross-party letter that the “gamechanging” measures outlined were “far too important to let it slip off the agenda”.
Continue reading...Key Labour pledge under threat as health service faces costs from redundancies, strikes and rising drug prices
NHS bosses are seeking an emergency injection of £3bn to cover unexpected costs and have warned ministers that without it patients will wait longer for treatment and hospitals will start rationing care.
Their move presents a fresh problem for Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, as she tries to find ways to fill an estimated £30bn hole in the nation’s finances in her budget next month.
Continue reading...Queensland Health has issued an alert for people to be aware of the products they warn could still be circulating in the Logan community
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Health authorities have identified homemade chilli paste products as the source of a cluster of rat poisoning cases in south-east Queensland.
Five people from the same geographic area presented to hospitals earlier in October with symptoms consistent with being exposed to brodifacoum, the active ingredient in rat poison.
Continue reading...Boy, 13, swallowed the high-power magnets after apparently buying them from the online retailer Temu
A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought online, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Friday.
After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teenager was taken to Tauranga hospital in the North Island. “He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
This article’s byline was amended on 25 October 2025 to correct the news agency it was attributed to. An earlier version incorrectly attributed it to Associated Foreign Press; however the correct agency was Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Sydney’s Observatory Hill peaks at 37C on Wednesday – below the 39C forecast – as the mercury in other parts of the city neared 40C
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Two men have died after being pulled from the water at a Victorian beach amid wild weather in the state.
On Wednesday evening, Victoria police confirmed two men were found unresponsive in the water at Frankston beach, on the Mornington Peninsula, just after 5pm. The men, who are yet to be identified, could not be revived.
Continue reading...Patients who had more cells had better outcomes, particularly for aggressive types such as triple-negative breast cancer
In the 18th century, physicians noticed nuns had some of the highest rates of breast cancer. It was one of the earliest clues that led scientists to suspect that child-bearing and breastfeeding could protect against the disease.
Modern data has confirmed the centuries-old observation but the biological reasons behind it have remained unclear. Explanations have often focused on pregnancy-related hormonal changes, but research published Tuesday in Nature has found breastfeeding provides long-lasting immune protection.
Continue reading...Triple-action therapy drug amivantamab could be given as an injection to help treat recurrent or metastatic cancers
Doctors have hailed “incredibly encouraging” trial results that show a triple-action smart jab can shrink tumours in head and neck cancer patients within six weeks.
Head and neck cancer is the world’s sixth most common form of the disease. If it spreads or comes back after standard treatment, patients may be offered immunotherapy and platinum chemotherapy. But if this fails, there is often little else doctors can do.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mandatory company disclosures show one bonus amounted to $2.5m, more than double their annual salary
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More than $14m in bonuses was awarded to senior Australian health insurance staff at Bupa little more than a year before the company admitted to unconscionably causing customers to cancel or delay medical procedures.
The bonuses, for more than 20 staff in 2023-24, came after the insurer had engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct” between May 2018 and August 2023. This affected more than 7,500 customers, leaving many out of pocket for procedures they were entitled to claim.
Continue reading...BPA, a synthetic chemical used in production of plastics, found in baby products made by three big European brands
A chemical linked to impaired sexual development, obesity and cancer has been found in baby dummies manufactured by three big European brands.
Dummies made by the Dutch multinational Philips, the Swiss oral health specialists Curaprox and the French toy brand Sophie la Girafe were found to contain bisphenol A (BPA), according to laboratory testing by dTest, a Czech consumer organisation. Philips said they had carried out subsequent testing and found no BPA, while Sophie la Girafe said the amount found was insignificant.
Continue reading...The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north
Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.
Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Continue reading...The Liberal leader says the prime minister must extract ‘concrete’ results on Aukus and trade. Follow today’s news live
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Hume: Ley describing Melbourne as Australia’s ‘crime capital’ just ‘explaining what every Victorian already knows’
The federal Liberal senator for Victoria, Jane Hume, was on ABC Radio National a short time ago speaking about crime in the state.
Sussan and the shadow ministry team are putting together our policy agenda as we speak. It is only five months since the last election, but I don’t agree that there is nothing that a federal government cannot do. In fact, there are plenty of things that a federal government can get involved in to help states tackle crime, whether it be working for consistent bail laws across the country.
Continue reading...Watchdog says some business and practitioners are taking advantage of the compassionate release of superannuation process
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Australians withdrew more than $1.4bn from their superannuation accounts for compassionate reasons in the last financial year, with much of that used to fund medical procedures ranging from dental work to weight loss treatments.
Of the 112,400 applications in 2024-25 for compassionate super access, 93,500 were made on medical grounds, up from 71,900 the year prior. There was a particularly sharp rise in applications to use superannuation to fund dental services, with the number doubling in two years to 32,875 requests.
Continue reading...Firm was ordered by high court to return sum paid by DHSC for unusable surgical gowns by 4pm on Wednesday
A company linked to the former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has failed to pay the government any of the £122m ordered by a high court judgment for supplying unusable personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.
Mrs Justice Cockerill ruled that PPE Medpro must, by a deadline of 4pm on 15 October, return the money it was paid by the Department of Health and Social Care for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020.
Continue reading...Treasurer says he spoke to former PM ‘half a dozen’ times before unveiling changes to his plans for superannuation tax concessions. Follow today’s news live
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Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take over.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says he spoke to former Labor prime minister Paul Keating ‘half a dozen times’ last week as he finalised the federal government’s watered-down superannuation tax plan. More coming up.
Continue reading...Katie Mitchell had procedure at 15 after being diagnosed with Eisenmenger syndrome, a rare congenital disease
At the age of 15, medics feared Katie Mitchell was coming to the end of her life after suffering irreversible lung damage and heart failure from a rare congenital disease.
But she defied the odds thanks to a heart and lung transplant, and at the age of 53 she has become the UK’s longest-surviving recipient of such a procedure.
Continue reading...Public health warning issued after drugs known as nitazenes detected amid move to ban pill testing
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Teddy bear-shaped pills laced with synthetic opioids have been linked to a death in Queensland, triggering a public health warning about a group of highly potent illicit drugs called nitazenes.
N-pyrrolidino-protonitazene and protonitazene were detected in toxicology and samples taken from pale yellow pills marked with the letter “Y” in the state’s south-east.
Continue reading...Search engine added ‘STI testing’ to list of sensitive topics, censoring important public health campaign, Greens leader says
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Google has blocked ads for a commonwealth-funded STI awareness campaign as “adult content” in a move sexual health organisations say frustrates efforts to share evidence-based public health information online.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that the tech company’s moderation practices had recently undermined the reach and cost-effectiveness of the national campaign, run by Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (SRHA).
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