Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• Federal Government budget cuts will cause an increase in domestic violence and substance abuse, Democratic Labour Party Senator John Madigan says.

• The Queensland farming family behind Australia’s first fresh fruit vending machine believes its latest breakthrough will lead to a significant increase in the consumption of fresh fruit in the country.
  

• Fathers play a key role in supporting breastfeeding and are actively involved in their infants’ feeding, according to a new study.

Overview

• Cancer patients requiring reconstructive plastic surgery have been denied or delayed hospital cover by Medibank because the nation’s largest health insurance provider claims it is a “cosmetic” procedure.

• Mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s “baby box” idea should replace the “perverse incentive” that is the baby bonus, a child health expert in the NT says.

• West Australian Health Minister Kim Hames has confirmed health employees are being offered a package if they resign from the public sector and find work with private operator Serco.

Overview

• Autism experts are calling for changes in diagnostic testing, saying the current approach is failing to identify the true number of females with the disorder.

• Parents who have had children through surrogates in Australia say the thriving overseas surrogacy market is being fuelled by messy Australian laws.

• Philip Nitschke’s lawyers have argued an appeal against his suspension by the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) should be held in the Northern Territory where he has been registered as a doctor for 25 years.

Overview

• MRI scans could be a ‘game-changer’ in prostate cancer testing. Urologists at St Vincent’s Prostate Cancer Centre in Sydney have found MRI scans are 97 per cent effective at detecting when patients do not have prostate cancer.

• The Royal Adelaide Hospital has denied the doors to its emergency department were blocked to prevent access during a busy period.

• Careless use of a broad-spectrum antibiotic in the 1950s created a “hypervirulent” strain of bacterium that worsened risks for newborn babies, according to an international study.

Overview

• At least 25 African delegates to the international AIDS conference in Melbourne last month have stayed on to seek asylum in Australia.

• Members of the Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANF) oppose the State Government’s plan to save $50 million a year and prevent job cuts by freezing public sector wages for a year and limiting future increases.

• Descendants and historians are calling for recognition for thousands of Australian nurses who served overseas in World War I but were not part of the official nursing deployment.