INTERVIEWS

Overview:
• Dr Ian Kamerman a Tamworth GP says that Australia’s health system would benefit if more overseas-trained doctors were able to register to work within the country. The problem was that bureaucracy and red tape gets in the way. 

• Huan Yun Xiang who shot two students dead and injured five others at Monash University in Clayton 13 years ago, stabbed a doctor during an interview at the Thomas Embling facility in Fairfield. Xiang was found not guilty of murder due to mental impairment and was sentenced 25 years in psychiatric hospital .The doctor is recovering in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

• A national law firm is seeking compensation for former Broken Hill hospital nurses who allege they were systemically bullied at work. Claims of widespread bullying at the Far West Local Health District prompted an internal review earlier this year.

Overview:
• Australia’s private health industry is too complex and drives consumers to lower-priced policies which lack adequate coverage, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found.

• One of the grieving families at the centre of a cluster of baby deaths at a Victorian hospital has criticised the State Government’s response to the issue, saying they are yet to get the answers they need. Stacey and Ross Caldera’s child was stillborn, one of 10 baby deaths at the Bacchus Marsh Hospital in 2013 and 2014 they were the subject to an independent investigation.

•  Some of Australia’s rugby union greats are taking part in a study to reveal any damage years of tackles may do to the brains and hearts. Former elite players Wallabies Simon Poidevin, John Eales and Owen Finegan are among those undergoing tests by researchers from the Heart Research Institute at Sydney University.

Guest: Professor Peter Howe
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: Professor Peter Howe, PhD is Professor of Nutrition Research and Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre at the University of Newcastle and an Adjunct Professor at both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. With an extensive track record of multidisciplinary preclinical and clinical research, over 250 papers, 8500 citations and an H-index of 48. He is recognised as an authority on cardiovascular and metabolic health benefits of omega-3 and other bioactive nutrients. Prof Howe has built partnerships with industry to develop functional foods and nutraceuticals and has contributed to food regulatory policy in Australia. He is a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and joint Editor-in-Chief of Nutrients.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, we are joined by Professor Peter Howe from the University of Newcastle to talk about recent development about Omega-3 consumption and heart health. He is among the invited speakers for the upcoming Blackmores Institute Symposium 2015 that will be held this month. Professor Howe will discuss the need for the Omega-3 test to be introduced as a cost effective marker of an individual’s omega-3 status and to encourage health professionals to measure their patients’ underlying level of Omega-3 fatty acids to decide on the right level of supplementation. This is a reliable way of getting Omega 3 fatty acids for those who do not eat enough fish.

Overview:
• The Queensland Government is enacting a ban on smoking at bus stops, taxi ranks, childcare centres and children’s sporting events. The legislative changes will also include the monitoring of cigarettes sales as other states and territories licence the supply of tobacco.

• The AMA released the updated AMA Position Statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health 2015, which was last revised in 2005. The updated Position Statement emphasises social determinants of heath, and their importance in reducing health inequality.

•  A Lake Macquarie woman Jennifer Holland says a trip to the family GP with her sick child led to an invention that she hopes will modernise mouth examinations around the world. She has created an illuminated tongue depressor that called Throat Scope.

Guest: Kate Swaffer
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: Chair and co-founder of Dementia Alliance International, Chair of the Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Advisory Group, and Board member of Alzheimer’s Disease International. Kate is an Honorary Associate Fellow with the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong; MSc (Dementia Care. She is a Humanitarian, advocate for people with dementia, author and international speaker, and is living beyond a diagnosis of younger onset dementia.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, learn more about the non-profit group Dementia Alliance International as their Chair and co-founder Kate Swaffer joins us to share more information about their mission and advocacy. They aim to bring the community composed of those with dementia together as one strong voice to urge the government, private sector, and medical professionals to listen to their concerns and take action. Dementia Alliance International was established in 2014 for the purpose of promoting education and awareness about dementia. More insight can be read through the Dementia Language Guidelines as well.

Overview:
• Some Australian soldier’s battle mental illness for decades after serving their country, but an Adelaide project is creating a space where men and women can talk about their issues, with a little help from a traditional Aussie shed. The Defence shed was officially opened at suburban Osborne on Saturday.

• ACT Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury has welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to legalise growing cannabis for medical use. The Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley has announced she would introduce legislation to Parliament, which would allow states and territories to cultivate cannabis for medical trials.

• Head of the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital paediatric emergency department, Malcolm Higgins, has warned parents of the risk of their children swallowing button-sized batteries.

Overview:
• Ms Cafferkey a British nurse who was successfully treated for Ebola in January after contracting the virus in Sierra Leone is now “critically ill” due to a resurgence of the virus, the hospital treating her says. Her sister Toni said doctors diagnosed her with a virus on Monday, but sent her home, missing an opportunity to act quickly.

• The two Australian scientists Professor David Craik from the University of Queensland and Professor Marilyn Anderson working on genetically modify plants to produce medicines to treat a range of diseases, from HIV to cancer they won last night the biennial Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award and they have been awarded $1 Million to make the concept a reality.

• Modern humans may have occupied southern China at least 30,000 years earlier than previously thought. Archaeologists have found 47 Homo sapiens teeth closely resembling our own, dated from 80,000-120,000 years old, in a cave in Hunan province, according to a letter published in Nature.

Overview:
• The privatisation of non-medical services at Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital is working well, a Parliamentary committee investigating serious problems at the hospital has been told. Health Minister Kim Hames defended the decision to privatise non-clinical services at the hospital when he appeared before the committee flanked by Health Department director general David Russell-Weisz and senior health executives.

• Maddie Riewoldt, 26, died in February from aplastic anaemia, a disorder in which the body’s bone marrow is unable to create enough new blood cells. Organisers of Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision said $750,000 had been raised in just 16 weeks and they had been overwhelmed by the generosity of Australians. Nick Riewoldt pledged $750,000 towards research into the rare disease.

• The Hazelwood mine fire inquiry’s board has been told there is a need for an independent health advocate in the Latrobe Valley. Gippsland Multicultural Services director, Lisa Simha, told the inquiry, the whole region needed to be engaged in a conversation about health improvement.

Overview:
• Food safety ratings will be displayed at more South Australian cafes and restaurants from next year after a trial proved a success, South Australian Health says. “The pilot has proven very successful and we have decided to expand the scheme to all councils which want to participate and involve their local businesses,” health executive Dr Fay Jenkins said.

• Many Australians may unknowingly be consuming their entire daily sugar and saturated fat limits on their daily coffee run, as well as half of the suggested kilojoule intake, new research from Cancer Council NSW has revealed.

• People with severe mental illnesses are dying in their 50s and 60s from preventable diseases, prompting calls for attention to turn to preventing their physical diseases. Statistics show they are three to four times more likely to develop diabetes and six times more likely to die from heart attack or stroke.