The News – 13 April 2015

Overview

• Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will miss out on government benefits of up to $15,000 per child under a new measure announced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

• The chair of Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has quit suddenly after a war of words with the Victorian Government over private beds at a new cancer hospital.

• Bones, bladder stones, and body parts are the subject of a collaborative art exhibition between an artist and a pathologist on display in Hobart.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 13th April 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-12/parents-who-refuse-to-vaccinate-to-miss-out-on-childcare-rebates/6386448

Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will miss out on government benefits of up to $15,000 per child under a new measure announced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Under current laws, families with children who are not immunised can still receive annual childcare rebates and other benefits if they have a personal, philosophical or religious objection.
Mr Abbott said the rules would now be tightened to only allow a small number of religious and medical exceptions, but he would not say how much the move was likely to save.
“This is essentially a ‘no jab, no pay’ policy from this Government,” Mr Abbott said.
“It’s a very important public health announcement, it’s a very important measure to keep our children and our families as safe as possible.”
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said he only expected a very small number of families to be exempted from the Government’s new policy.
Mr Morrison said parents seeking a religious exception would need to be registered with their church or similar organisation.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-10/peter-maccallum-cancer-centre-quits-suddenly-after-private-wing/6384798

The chair of Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has quit suddenly after a war of words with the Victorian Government over private beds at a new cancer hospital.

Wendy Harris QC tendered her resignation from the board of the centre at a meeting with Health Minister Jill Hennessy on Friday afternoon.
Ms Harris had been critical of the Government’s decision to prevent the organisation from including 42 private hospital beds at the new Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Parkville.
Peter MacCallum is a key partner in the new $1 billion hospital, which is currently under construction.
Ms Harris said the move jeopardised $20 million in philanthropic donations to the organisation and was reportedly “considering her position” after the decision.
The plan to include the private beds was endorsed by the former state government last year but was overturned after the state election.
The Government said the hospital will only have public hospital beds.
It is understood some of Peter MacCallum’s board members were not happy with the strong public criticisms made by Ms Harris.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy paid tribute to Ms Harris.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-10/hobart-artist-and-pathologist-discover-diseases-through-art/6384170

Bones, bladder stones, and body parts are the subject of a collaborative art exhibition between an artist and a pathologist on display in Hobart.

The process of using pathology specimens even lead to a previously unnoticed disease being detected.
The disease was seen by Tasmanian artist, Lauren Black, when she interpreted a gallbladder differently to the perceptions by pathologist, Dr Sorrel Standish-White.
The gall bladder shapes and variety of stones created an interest for Ms Black but there was something that Dr Standish-White was taken aback by with the gall bladder she had been teaching with for 30 years.
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Dr Standish-White …[discussed]… she was lost for words when she went to Ms Black’s studio to see the artwork of the gallbladders.
“I was literally speechless because she [Ms Black] had clearly drawn cholesterolosis, which is a very specific pathological feature that happens to the lining of the gall bladder,” Dr Standish-White said.
“I figured I kind of knew that specimen pretty well.
“I hadn’t seen it…it was embarrassing.”
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“It’s really wonderful what an artist brings to the process of seeing.”
Discoveries such as those made by Ms Black have led to university programs in the United States such as Yale, Harvard, the University of Texas, Stanford and now the University of Melbourne teaching art observation skills to medicine students.
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Dr Standish-White met Ms Black four years ago at a drawing class, when Ms Black was drawing moss growing on the skeletal remains of a Tasmanian bushranger and needed a human bone to create a finished artwork.
Being in the room at the right time, Dr Standish-White invited Ms Black to see bones and other body parts at an anatomy school for more artwork.
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Part of the Memento Mori exhibition is a collection of bladder stones and a medicine case on show from the Crowther family who operated as doctors in Tasmania in the 1820s.
There is also a human eye from a pathology museum sitting on a Victorian butter dish and a chest of draws with a set of lungs.
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The Memento Mori exhibition is held at the Allport Gallery until 18 July.

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