The Health News – 4 September 2015
Overview:
• University of the Sunshine Coast senior chemistry lecturer Dr Peter Brooks said about 80 varieties of tea trees grow along Australia’s coast line, and the study will determine which types produce the best pollen for medicinal honey and better health care.
• Four staff members from Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide have been “counselled” for removing a radiologist’s comments about hospital management from a patient’s medical record.
• The New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner is seeking advice on whether to tighten legislation for the cosmetic industry after a second woman suffered a cardiac arrest during a breast augmentation at a Sydney clinic.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 4th September 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-03/researchers-target-tea-trees-for-best-medicinal-honey/6745236
Queensland researchers are hoping a study of tea tree pollen will lead to better medicinal honey and better health care.
University of the Sunshine Coast senior chemistry lecturer Dr Peter Brooks said about 80 varieties of tea trees … grow along Australia’s coast line, and the study will determine which types produce the best pollen for medicinal honey.
He said the research would allow bee keepers to target specific trees and specific regions to produce high-grade Manuka honey.
(Health News)
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“We’re testing all the species [of leptospermum] for their bioactivity and recommending them to beekeepers as to which ones they should be targeting,” Dr Brooks said.
“A lot of people are looking at these honeys for the medicinal properties and the therapeutical actions of them.”
Dr Brooks said medicinal honey has been used to treat open and infected wounds for thousands of years.
“The honey … when it’s applied to a wound draws the infection out and the natural compounds within the honey destroys the infection,” he said.
“So it clears up the infections that are recalcitrant to pharmaceuticals on occasion but at the same time it dampens the inflammation underneath so it allows the tissue to heal quicker.”
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The study involves a regional analysis of the leptospermum pollen and the honey it produces.
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Dr Brooks said he hoped the study would help beekeepers produce medicinal honey every year.
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The Australian Honeybee Industry Council is supporting the study by supplying samples of honey to researchers.
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Four staff members from Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide have been “counselled” for removing a radiologist’s comments about hospital management from a patient’s medical record.
In July, Dr Paul Newbold revealed part of a patient’s record was deleted and he believed the deletions were “very dangerous and very sinister”.
The comments related to the ordering of tests and delays in reporting test results.
The hospital introduced a new computer medical imaging system called ESMI in May.
“That report has been erased, it’s like I never left home, never drove to the hospital, never put that report in the medical record system,” Dr Newbold said at the time.
Chief medical officer Paddy Phillips conducted a review of the situation and …[said] that it was “a serious issue”.
He said the four people ranging from middle management and higher “were involved in the separation of that medical record, or that radiology report for that test from that individual patient’s record”.
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“They tried to do something that was inappropriate. They now know that, they admit that they made a mistake and they have been counselled.”
Health Minister Jack Snelling said medical records were private and the issue the doctor wanted to raise about the service would not have reached his office.
He said Crown Law were aware of the investigation’s findings and would consider if the matter should be forwarded to the Department of Public Prosecutions to consider charges.
Mr Snelling said to his knowledge this was an isolated case.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-03/nsw-considers-tighter-regulation-for-cosmetic-industry/6748178
The New South Wales Health Minister is seeking advice on whether to tighten legislation for the cosmetic industry after a second woman suffered a cardiac arrest during a breast augmentation at a Sydney clinic.
Jillian Skinner on Thursday sent a team of inspectors from the Private Health Care Unit to inspect The Cosmetic Institute’s (TCI) facilities.
On Wednesday, the unnamed Victoria woman’s heart briefly stopped beating during a routine breast enhancement procedure at TCI’s Bondi clinic.
She was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital by ambulance where she remains in a stable condition.
It is the second time this year a patient has suffered a cardiac arrest while undergoing a breast augmentation at a TCI clinic.
It also comes two weeks after the ABC revealed TCI is under investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) for alleged misuse of anaesthetics.
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TCI said the incident was still being investigated, but they did not believe the patient’s cardiac arrest was caused by an overdose of local anaesthetic.
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Professor Merrilyn Walton, a former commissioner for the HCCC and professor of medical education at the University of Sydney, said she was concerned cosmetic procedures were increasingly being done in unlicensed facilities.
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ACCS has called for an agreed set of national standards of education and training for cosmetic surgery.
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