Category Archives: Health

More than 500,000 under-35s in UK out of work due to long-term illness

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Experts link 44% increase in four years to a growing mental health crisis and underinvestment in health services

More than half a million young people in the UK say they are out of work due to long-term illness, a 44% increase in just four years.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that more than 560,000 people aged between 16 and 34 were economically inactive – meaning they were not in work or seeking work – in the first three months of 2023 due to long-term sickness.

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Woolworths issues recall for Christmas mince pies over potential metal contamination

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Supermarket says there have been no complaints and the New South Wales recall is being done as a ‘precaution’

The chance of metal contamination has led to supermarket giant Woolworths issuing a recall in New South Wales for a batch of a common Christmas treat.

Woolworths said the affected product is Shortcrust Summer Berry Mince Pies, sold in six-packs, with a “best before” date of 13 June 2024.

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Victoria to offer free healthcare to those who have fled Israel-Gaza war

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Those not eligible for Medicare due to their visas to get free hospital care, dental and other services

People fleeing the Israel-Gaza war will receive free healthcare under a Victorian initiative, amid calls for other states to follow suit.

The state’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, will on Saturday announce people fleeing the conflict – who aren’t eligible for Medicare due to their visa – will be able to access essential healthcare, specialised mental health support and language services.

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Cancer and maternity patients at risk if junior doctors strike in January, NHS bosses warn

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NHS Employers writes to British Medical Association warning of dangers of proposed six-day stoppage

Patients have been harmed as a result of doctors striking this year, and others needing time-critical treatment will be at risk during next month’s walkout in England, hospital bosses have said.

Cancer patients and women having induced or caesarean section births will be in danger of damage to their health unless junior doctors in those areas of care abandon their plans to strike for six days in January, they said.

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Gaza children being killed or mutilated in ‘very extreme’ numbers, Australian doctor says

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Reporting what is being directly witnessed by MSF healthcare workers does not indicate loss of neutrality, Natalie Thurtle stresses

An Australian doctor who coordinated medical aid to Gaza has expressed horror at the “huge proportion of children being killed or maimed for life” as the UN security council again delayed a vote on a ceasefire resolution.

Dr Natalie Thurtle, who helped oversee the response by Médecins Sans Frontières until last week, said it was “very confronting for colleagues trying to provide healthcare when it’s possible to be shot through the window of the hospital”.

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Australia news live: only 54.3% of Virgin flights and 66.3% of Qantas flights on time last month, transport minister says

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‘Very disappointing results, it is no wonder that so many Australians remain fed up with our major airlines,’ Catherine King says. Follow today’s news updates live

‘Very, very clear’ renewables are the cheapest form of energy, Bowen says

Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, including its storage and transmission costs, the energy minister told ABC RN.

Its conclusions this year are unimpeachable and very, very clear.

The cheapest form of energy is renewable energy, even including the costs that go with renewable energy around storage and transmission.

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NHS leader warns junior doctors’ strikes could lead to tipping point

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Matthew Taylor says there is a risk of health service becoming overwhelmed early in new year as pay row continues

Strikes by junior doctors increase the risk that the NHS will become overwhelmed by winter pressures early in the new year, a senior health service leader has warned.

Their walkouts, happening at the same time as hospitals are struggling with the usual surge in cold weather illness, could propel the NHS towards a tipping point, said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

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‘They all knew’: Michelle Mone hits out at Rishi Sunak over PPE deals

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Former Tory peer says government was aware of her involvement in PPE Medpro ‘from the very beginning’

Michelle Mone has condemned Rishi Sunak after he expressed concern at her admission she lied about involvement in a company that won lucrative deals during Covid, saying the government “knew about my involvement from the very beginning”.

After the former Conservative peer admitted in a BBC interview on Sunday that she had been untruthful in denying a connection to PPE Medpro, which made millions of pounds in profits over a contract to provide personal protective equipment, Sunak said No 10 was taking the case “incredibly seriously”.

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Extra $25bn needed to make NDIS sustainable by boosting other disability services, actuary says

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Chair of Actuaries Institute committee says money could go towards establishing early intervention programs for those with developmental delays

Governments will need to invest an additional $25bn over the next five years if they are to achieve plans to rein in the NDIS’s growth by lifting disability services outside the scheme to a high enough level, a leading actuary has estimated.

It comes as disability organisations, particularly those advocating for the autism community, raise concerns about who will be able to access the scheme in the future, and whether those who can’t join the NDIS can still be well supported.

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New taskforce to crack down on price gouging by unscrupulous NDIS providers

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One scheme participant tells how he was quoted $800 for a wheelchair fix a panel beater did for free

Dodgy NDIS providers will be in the sights of a new taskforce that will target businesses charging exorbitant prices for services, support and equipment.

The taskforce, made up of the consumer watchdog and two national disability insurance scheme agencies, will target differential pricing – a practice whereby providers charge people on the scheme a higher price than those who aren’t.

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Pain, trauma and ‘moral injury’: the push to improve birthing care in NSW hospitals

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A public hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma in Wagga Wagga this week heard calls to overhaul pregnancy and maternal healthcare services

When Samantha gave birth to her daughter in 2022, she was told by medical staff that being in “excruciating pain” was normal.

They were discharged two days after the birth. It wasn’t until a community midwife told her the severe bruising on her buttocks was not normal that Samantha, who asked that her full name not be used, presented to the hospital again. Examinations and an ultrasound revealed she had suffered a haematoma and a third-degree perineal tear that had been improperly repaired. For months afterwards she struggled with symptoms resulting from her injuries, forcing her to spend thousands of dollars with private specialists.

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Number of Australian children skipping fruit and vegetables on the rise, survey finds

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Marketing of processed foods and sugary drinks plays significant role in influencing children’s diets, expert says

Public health advocates are calling for action to curb obesity after fewer Australian children were found to be eating fruit and vegetables.

The number of children eating the recommended amount of fruit has dropped substantially, according to the results of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Health Survey, down by 9% (73% to 64%) in the five years to 2022.

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Former EPA official says agency fails to protect public from toxic pesticides

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Karen McCormack says regulators at environmental agency are discouraged from speaking up about dangerous chemicals

Federal regulators are discouraged from speaking up about potentially dangerous pesticides, according to a former agency official.

Karen McCormack, a retired Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist who spent 40 years with the agency, told Al Jazeera’s investigative show Fault Lines that she believed the EPA was not fulfilling its mission to protect the public from harmful chemicals.

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Australian Medical Association accuses premiers of ‘actively undermining’ health officials’ response to Covid pandemic

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AMA criticises political leaders for ‘painful lack of collaboration’ on vaccines and urges faster rollout of national centre for disease control

The Australian Medical Association has accused some premiers of “actively undermining” public health officials at points during the pandemic and said governments were now seeking to avoid criticism of their actions throughout the Covid period.

In a submission to the federal Covid inquiry, the health lobby group also urged the Labor government to speed up its rollout of a national centre for disease control to combat future pandemics, while lashing former political leaders for “a painful lack of collaboration” during the vaccine rollout.

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Police officer stoned to death after rescuing FGM survivors in Kenya

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Activists see the killing as a setback in the efforts to eliminate the practice, despite it being illegal in the east African country

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths.

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death.

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Scott Benton faces Commons suspension over lobbying to give Tories potential byelection headache – UK politics live

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Commons standards committee recommends 35-day suspension for Scott Benton, who had Conservative whip suspended in April

Rishi Sunak has said that he is open to considering ways in which his Rwanda bill can be “improved”.

With Conservative rightwingers and centrists both wanting to amend the bill, in opposite directions, when it returns to the Commons in the new year, Sunak signalled that the government would be open to accepting some changes.

I’ve been very consistently clear, as have all ministers, if there are ways that the legislation can be improved, to be made even more effective — with a respectable legal argument and maintaining the participation of the Rwandans in the scheme — of course we would be open to that, who wouldn’t be?

This is a damning report from the cross-party standards committee, clearly concluding that Scott Benton seriously breached parliamentary rules in flaunting his position as a parliamentarian in exchange for remuneration.

This is not an isolated case, but comes off the back of a wave of Tory sleaze and scandal.

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Australia will become the first country to ban engineered stone bench tops. Will others follow?

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Ban is the culmination of a years-long campaign, driven by doctors, trade unions and workers involved in its cutting and handling

When an Australian worker developed a debilitating lung disease in 2015, it didn’t take researchers long to connect it to engineered stone bench tops – a popular feature in kitchens and bathrooms.

A years-long campaign, driven by doctors, trade unions and workers, was launched to ban the artificial material as silicosis cases rose among those involved in its cutting and handling.

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Suppliers of unusable PPE should pay back taxpayer money, Australian peak doctors’ group says

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Australian health department spokesperson says it is ‘exploring options for viable cost-recovery’

Australia’s peak doctors’ group says the government should recover taxpayer funds from PPE suppliers who provided defective equipment at the height of the pandemic.

Guardian Australia revealed last month that the former government handed a PPE contract worth more than $100m to a small, relatively unknown online retailer, whose previous experience involved selling robot vacuum cleaners, massage guns, bedding, and air fryers.

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Tropical Cyclone Jasper live update tracker: category 2 storm hits North Qld, more than 14,000 homes lose power, BoM radar track map – latest

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BoM tracker map shows forecast path of category 2 cyclone will hit north of Cairns and Port Douglas on the Queensland coast at about 1pm with heavy rain, 140km/h winds and storm surge predicted. Follow the latest Australia news and weather updates today

Ceasefire ‘can’t be one-sided’

Emergency management minister Murray Watt is also speaking to ABC RN this morning, and was asked about the PM’s joint letter with his New Zealand and Canadian counterparts urging a ceasefire.

[It] shows that we want to work with like-minded countries towards what would be a just and enduring peace. I think the whole world has been pleased to see the release of hostages and the pause in hostilities that we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, but what we need to do is move towards a sustainable ceasefire …

I think everyone who watches this conflict unfolds on their television screens, is really disturbed about the loss of life that we’re seeing go on at the moment.

I think that’s the value that a country like Australia can play here by really taking that even-handed approach that does call out the abhorrent behaviour by Hamas, but also as a friend of Israel, calls on them to respect international humanitarian law.

We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza. The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.

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‘Dangerous product’: Australian ban on engineered stone benchtops to begin next year

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Most states and territories to ban product on 1 July, with Commonwealth flagging an import prohibition

Australia will ban engineered stone from 1 July 2024, following a meeting of state and federal workplace ministers.

According to Queensland and Victorian governments, ministers on Wednesday agreed to ban the material, which is commonly used in kitchen and bathroom benchtops.

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