Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• Refugee advocates have warned the federal government’s call to send 10 children unaccompanied to Nauru detention centre has put the children at serious risk of mental health issues.

• In the Northern Territory, ambulance staff have commenced industrial action to try and end what they’ve called a bullying culture in the Saint John Ambulance Service.

• The Health Services Union has supported the Western Australian Treasurer’s criticism of the health department over the Fiona Stanley Hospital debacle.

• A Sydney-based psychiatrist has been forced to stop travelling to Mudgee, in the mid-west of the state, due to absence of air travel from Sydney.

Overview

• Prime Minister Tony Abbott is being pushed to give full disclosure of when he and his office were informed of a possible conflict-of-interest involving Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash’s chief-of-staff.

• The Australian Medical Association has released its annual Public Hospital Report Card, which shows that many public hospitals are failing to adequately meet public demand and performance targets.

• A Freedom of Information request has revealed a mass resignation of nurses at the Alice Springs Sexual Assault Referral Centre.

• The outgoing under treasurer Tim Marney has revealed Treasury was only given two weeks to scrutinise a multi-billion dollar contract for the Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Overview

• The Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash yesterday told parliament that her chief-of-staff does in fact hold shares in a lobby group.

• In South Australia, residents of the state’s south east will benefit from an extension of telehealth services.Country South SA Medicare Local says it will expand video link services to the region and will now include cardiology, gastroenterology and psychiatry consultations in Naracoorte.

• In far north QLD, residents of Innisfail are being warned to beware of mosquitoes and breeding sites, after a case of dengue fever has been confirmed in the area.

Overview

• Labor’s senate leader Penny Wong has questioned assistant health minister Fiona Nash on the controversial removal of a health department website last week.

• Queensland’s auditor-general has referred several doctors to the Crime and Misconduct Commission to investigate if they have defrauded Queensland Health.

• In QLD, hundreds of residents from the Wide Bay area are being contacted by the state health department for dental treatment, some of whom have been waiting up to 12 years for treatment.

Overview

• A new World Health Organisation report claims that cancer has usurped heart disease as Australia’s deadliest illness. The World Cancer report found that 8.2 million people, including 40,000 Australians, died from cancer in 2012.

• The new CEO of the Royal Flying Doctor Service South-Eastern section, Greg Sam, says collaboration is key to improving healthcare in the region.

• The number of serious medical errors made each year in Australian hospitals has increased from 87 to 107 over the past 12 months. The report from the Productivity Commission included 34 in-patient suicides, 35 medical instruments left inside patients, and 4 cases of the wrong patient or body part being operated on resulting in permanent injury or death.

Overview

• In Far North Queensland, hundreds of local doctors have voted against the individual work contracts currently proposed by the state government.

• Another case of measles has been reported after a traveller returning to Darwin from the Philippines contracted the virus.

• A report has found that Western Australia employs more overseas doctors than anywhere else in the country, and need 950 new doctors to fill existing vacancies.

• The federal health department has been the subject of speculation regarding its taking down of a new website designed to help consumers understand the new front-of-package nutritional labels on food and beverages.