Category Archives: Health

Starmer praises Abbott and hails diverse Commons in first speech to parliament as PM – as it happened

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Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world

Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.

Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.

Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.

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Australia news live: Albanese announces special envoy to combat antisemitism, says Jewish students ‘worried’ to wear school uniform

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Meanwhile, attorney general to outline updated legislation to crackdown on money laundering. Follow the day’s news live

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, said that when it comes to the Alice Springs curfew, politics needs to be left out of it.

Speaking with ABC RN, Burney said:

This issues in Alice Springs have been a long time in the making … [The issues] will only be addressed over a long-term funding commitment, which we’ve made from the federal government.

We certainly are concerned that this is going to continue to increase and potentially overwhelm the hospital systems.

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NHS urged to prioritise cancer care basics over tech and AI ‘magic bullets’

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Health service is at tipping point, say experts, and ‘novel solutions’ have been wrongly hyped

The NHS must concentrate on the basics of cancer treatment rather than the “magic bullets” of novel technologies and artificial intelligence, or risk the health of thousands of patients, experts have warned.

In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, nine leading cancer doctors and academics say the NHS is at a tipping point in cancer care with survival rates lagging behind many other developed countries.

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Wes Streeting pledges billions to GPs in order to ‘fix front door’ of NHS

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Health secretary wants to bring back family doctors, cut pressure on hospitals and solve pay disputes

Ministers will divert billions of pounds from hospitals to GPs to “fix the front door to the NHS”, Wes Streeting has promised as he said millions of patients will be able to see the same family doctor at every appointment.

The health secretary made his first major policy announcement as he prepared to begin vital talks with junior doctors on Tuesday, aimed at finally ending the strikes that have crippled the health service since 2022.

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Pakistani breast milk bank closes after Islamic clerics withdraw approval

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Doctors deplore decision and point to country’s high neonatal mortality rate as bank, which opened in June, forced to close without taking a single deposit

When he heard a hospital in Karachi was setting up a milk bank for babies, the news was a “huge relief” to Mohammad Munawwar.

With his wife very sick and their premature son Ayan in hospital, the 52-year-old father had had to collect milk five or six times a day from different female relatives who were breastfeeding their own babies.

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Starmer tells his cabinet: now it’s time to deliver on our promises

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PM pledges swift action on NHS and prisons, setting out agenda to reform public services and rebuild international relations

Keir Starmer on Saturday rallied his new cabinet behind an ambitious agenda to reform the country’s creaking public services and reset damaged relations abroad during his first full day as prime minister.

After an extraordinary 48 hours that saw Labour storm to a landslide general election victory with a massive Commons majority of 174 while the Tories were routed, Starmer said he was “restless for change” and determined to deliver on his campaign pledges.

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Wes Streeting says NHS is broken as he announces pay talks with junior doctors

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New health secretary aims to resolve dispute in England and warns health service is ‘not good enough’

The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced that talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week.

The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.

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What it means for patients if St Vincent’s and NIB fail to reach a funding deal

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The hospital network says it will walk away from its contract with the private health insurer in three months if a fairer agreement can’t be reached. Has this situation happened before?

The clock is ticking for thousands of patients after Australia’s largest not-for-profit healthcare provider, St Vincent’s, announced it would end its current agreement with health insurer NIB if a fair funding deal could not be reached before 3 October.

The chief executive of NIB, Mark Fitzgibbon, says he hopes negotiations resume, but St Vincent’s maintains the insurer needs to come to the table during the notice period and put forward a proposal that reflects the rising costs of healthcare.

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Dutton says ‘Australia can learn’ from new British PM’s nuclear stance – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

‘Pretty clear’ Fatima Payman has been planning to join crossbench for a ‘long period’, minister says

The finance minister and manager of the government in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, is speaking with ABC RN after Fatima Payman’s resignation yesterday.

It’s difficult to go into, you know, when the decision was made – only Senator Payman knows that – but we do know, now that it’s been done, it’s a matter of fact that there had been obviously discussions about her role as an independent senator and for some time.

I think the way these decisions have been made by Senator Payman make it pretty clear that she has been thinking about this for a long period of time, and it was executed this week …

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Thousands of patients facing healthcare price hikes after negotiations break down between St Vincent’s and NIB

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Australian Medical Association is urging both parties to reach an agreement for the sake of patients

Thousands of patients could face higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs after negotiations broke down between St Vincent’s private hospital network and the private health fund, NIB, for a new funding agreement.

On Thursday, St Vincent’s Health Australia gave notice to NIB that it will walk away from its contract within the next 65 business days unless a fairer funding agreement is reached.

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Senator says PM’s office planted seed about crossing floor – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Josh Burns says Labor motion to recognise Palestine as part of the peace process is ‘the bare minimum’

Josh Burns finished with:

This motion before the House is the bare minimum. It says that we support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process. That peace process is something that I hold onto and that I have held onto my entire life.

That peace process says that we are all people, above all, and that there has to be a way through this. There has to be a way through this conflict. I wish that we could pull a lever here in Australia and it would all end today, but we have seen time and time again that that is not the case.

There are so many intractable parts of this conflict. I have a degree in this conflict, and I still don’t quite know how to fix it.

I know that there are players who are desperate to end the peace process and to try and disturb any efforts towards peace. I know that trees take years and years and years to grow and can be cut down in a second, and that is what the Middle East has demonstrated over and over again.

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NHS leader calls for partnership with private sector to build new hospitals

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Exclusive: NHS Providers head says joining with private health firms and developers would help care backlog

The NHS must be given the green light to partner with private health firms and property developers to build new hospitals to slash the care backlog, a health service boss has said.

The last Labour government was widely criticised over controversial private finance initiative (PFI) deals to erect scores of new NHS facilities that led to vast profits for major corporations.

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Pippa White would ‘almost certainly’ have survived had she been given antibiotics in time, NSW inquest hears

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Two-year-old’s sepsis death would likely have been prevented if necessary treatment had occurred 12-18 hours earlier, doctor tells coronial inquest

A senior doctor at the regional New South Wales hospital where a two-year-old girl died of septic shock says he would have activated the sepsis treatment pathway six hours earlier had he known her condition was deteriorating, an inquest has heard.

Prof Adam Buckmaster said Pippa Mae White may still have died because she already had “overwhelming sepsis”, although she “almost certainly” would have survived had she been treated with antibiotics 12 or 18 hours earlier.

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Mass purge of frozen sperm donations ordered as Queensland audit exposes misidentification risk

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Health ombudsman says ‘thousands’ of sperm samples at fertility clinics are at risk of potentially devastating identification mix-ups

Queensland’s health ombudsman has ordered the destruction of thousands of frozen sperm donations, as a new report reveals 42% of all audited samples in the state were of medium or high risk of being misidentified.

The state had more than twice as many potential errors identified in audits as the next worst state, Victoria.

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Australia politics live: Labor caucus endorses Payman suspension; Watt says no plan to ban live cattle exports

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PM calls for ‘a long-term solution in a peace process’ between Israel and Palestine. Follow today’s news headlines live

Shorten says he thinks Labor party is trying to give Senator Payman ‘space and time’

Bill Shorten continues:

I see why people feel so strongly. They can feel so strongly about the hostage is not being returned, or the deaths in Gaza. People could feel also very strongly about the near million deaths in Sudan.

I can get these very incredibly strong issues. And if you come from particular communities, they’re even more intense, although that doesn’t need to be the prerequisite.

Before I deny something, what’s your source?

No, I don’t believe that.

… Because I wasn’t there and I don’t believe it. I actually think the prime minister, Senator Wong and the leadership are handling a complicated issue pretty well.

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Risk of serious injury as strangling during sex becomes normalised among young Australians

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Sexual violence experts concerned about health risks and lack of consent after survey shows almost 60% of respondents under 35 had been choked at least once

Strangling a partner during sex is widely perceived as normal especially among young people, with more than half of adults aged 35 and under reporting they have been strangled, many of them unaware of potentially serious health consequences.

It is a finding that has sexual violence experts so concerned that they launched the “Breathless” campaign and website on Tuesday to highlight that strangulation – often referred to as “choking” – is unsafe, and often occurs with no or inadequate communication or consent.

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Patients left in pain and to die alone amid NHS nurse shortages, survey finds

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Only a third of shifts have enough nurses on duty, the Royal College of Nursing says its analysis shows

NHS patients are being left unseen in pain and in some cases to die alone because shifts do not have enough registered nurses, a survey shows.

The Royal College of Nursing said analysis of a survey it carried out showed that only a third of shifts had enough registered nurses on duty.

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Toxic PFAS absorbed through skin at levels higher than previously thought

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Absorption through skin could be ‘significant source of exposure’ to toxic forever chemicals, study shows

New research “for the first time proves” toxic PFAS forever chemicals are absorbed through human skin, and at levels much higher than previously thought.

Though modeling and research has suggested the dangerous chemicals are absorbed through skin, University of Birmingham researchers say they used lab-grown tissue that mimics human skin to determine how much of a dose of PFAS compounds can be absorbed.

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Britons seeking medical treatments overseas ‘should beware low prices’

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Experts warn ‘health tourists’ to do their research, saying savings can lead to higher costs for work to be redone

Patients seeking medical treatments in Turkey and other countries should do their research and not be tempted by low prices, experts have warned.

From Brazilian butt lifts to Hollywood smiles and even organ transplants, the range of procedures offered by overseas providers is staggering, with myriad companies now promoting packages covering flights, accommodation and post-operative hotel accommodation.

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Mushroom gummies: powerful cannabis product could have caused ‘disturbing hallucinations’ and hospitalisations

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The recall of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies has sparked concerns that the product contains psychoactive cannabinoids

A cannabis product could be to blame for more than six people being hospitalised with symptoms including seizure-like twitching, vomiting and hallucinations after consuming gummies marketed as containing mushrooms, according to experts.

The Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies were recalled this week by Food Standards Australia New Zealand after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

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