The Health News – 28 April 2017
Overview:
• A proposal to build a cancer treatment centre on Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne, could attract more than 5,000 international patients from Asia each year. Vice chairman of the Phillip Island Medical and Health Action Group John Matthews said there are four million Chinese patients waiting to be treated for cancer that are unable to access medical services at home and are travelling the world to seek treatment elsewhere.
• The Victorian Government plans to develop a real-time monitoring system to track demand on emergency services and improve response times in case of another health emergency like last year’s thunderstorm asthma event. The Government will provide $15.56 million in the state budget for a package of measures to tackle the problem, with the monitoring system one of the key changes.
• Choity Khatun was born in a village in Bangladesh with a condition called cordial twinning, which meant she had part of a twin develop in her perineum. The Children First Foundation came across the case and brought Choity to Melbourne last year. In November… a team of eight surgeons operated on the toddler for eight hours. Professor Kimber said She’s now able to walk and run and go to the toilet, and this is going to make a big difference to her life back in Bangladesh.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 27th of April 2017. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-27/cancer-treatment-tourism-drawcard-for-phillip-island/8477218
A proposal to build a cancer treatment centre on Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne, could attract more than 5,000 international patients from Asia each year.
The plan to build a radiation, oncology and chemotherapy treatment centre, which would also include luxury accommodation, has the backing of Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, whose electorate of Flinders takes in Phillip Island.
Phillip Island, with its penguin parade, is already a drawcard for international tourists from China, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka.
The parade attracts more than a million visitors each year.
While the cancer treatment centre has been proposed by the local community as a significant need for local use, the Phillip Island Medical and Health Action Group said pitching the facility to international medical tourists was useful in demonstrating its broad appeal to prospective investors.
Vice chairman of the health action group, John Matthews, said there are four million Chinese patients waiting to be treated for cancer that are unable to access medical services at home and are travelling the world to seek treatment elsewhere.
The Victorian Government plans to develop a real-time monitoring system to track demand on emergency services and improve response times in case of another health emergency like last year’s thunderstorm asthma event.
Emergency departments will send information on how many people are seeking treatment to a central computer.
If more people than expected turn up, it will issue an alert to the Health Department and Emergency Management Victoria so they beef up their responses.
The monitoring system is one of a package of measures recommended by the final report into the crisis, which was released …[this week].
Hospital emergency departments and ambulances were overwhelmed when a sudden cool change and storm swept across Melbourne last November, causing respiratory problems for thousands of people.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the scale and severity of the thunderstorm asthma event was dramatic and unprecedented not only in Victoria but internationally.
Ms Hennessy said emergency services did a remarkable job in extremely difficult circumstances, but the Government was determined to improve the response.
The Government will provide $15.56 million in the state budget for a package of measures to tackle the problem, with the monitoring system one of the key changes.
Ms Hennessy said the Government would adopt all 16 recommendations made by the Inspector General for Emergency management (IGEM), Tony Pearce, in his report on the issue.
A team of Melbourne surgeons has performed a rare reconstruction of a Bangladeshi toddler’s lower body and internal organs, after she was born with three legs.
Choity Khatun was born in a village in Bangladesh with a condition called cordial twinning, which meant she had part of a twin develop in her perineum.
Head of surgery at Monash Children’s Hospital Professor Chris Kimber said it was amazing she had survived her first two years.
Doctors in Bangladesh cut open her tummy and attached her bowel to her skin so she would not die from a bowel obstruction.
Her mother Shima Khatun said she did not understand what was wrong with Choity when she was first born.
The Children First Foundation came across the case and brought Choity to Melbourne last year.
In November… a team of eight surgeons operated on the toddler for eight hours.
Professor Kimber said they had to reconstruct many parts of Choity’s anatomy, as she had double of some organs, and many were attached in the wrong place inside her lower body.
He said the result was better than they could have imagined.
A team of doctors, nurses and therapists have been looking after Choity since the operation, and said she had been eating normally after having a colostomy bag removed.
A key consideration for the team was that Choity would be returning to her home in a rural village in Bangladesh, without the money or resources for ongoing care.
“She’s now able to walk and run and go to the toilet, and this is going to make a big difference to her life back in Bangladesh.”