The following health and related news items are sourced from National, State and online news, current affairs and opinion sites. News is archived monthly into the News Archives.
National News
State/Territory News
International News
Other News
National News
Private sector hits doctor training - 28 May, 2007
So many operations and other treatments are done in private hospitals, doctor's rooms and private clinics that public hospitals can no longer train junior doctors in the skills they need...More
Medics concerned at loss of faith in drugs process - 28 May, 2007
Health Minister Tony Abbott has been warned the Government is risking the independence of the body that decides which new drugs should be subsidised by the taxpayer...More
Breaking the cycle - 26 May, 2007
Governments have been slow to understand how best to improve the health of the Aboriginal population...More
Wisely spent, $10.6m can clarify obesity uncertainties - 26 May, 2007
Despite the enormity of the obesity epidemic, astonishingly Australia still lacks information about trends in weight, physical activity and what we eat...More
Indigenous health burden growing - 21 May, 2007
Waistlines of indigenous Australians are continuing to spread despite the federal Government's attempts to fix the shortfall in Aboriginal health...More
Demand will grow, but supply of women's specialists is falling - 19 May, 2007
Back up is not available for the rural and remote specialists...More
A new breed - 19 May, 2007
The first examples of a new type of doctor called 'hospitalists' have started work in Australia, but critics are concerned standards may slip...More
Aussie kids are fat and anxious - 16 May, 2007
Obesity, anxiety and depression have replaced measles and mumps as the most common childhood illnesses, doctors report...More
Parents want junk food ads banned - 16 May, 2007
An overwhelming majority of Australian parents believe junk food advertising is bad for their children's health and should be banned during popular viewing hours, a national survey has found...More
Aborigines best at watching over indigenous health - 14 May, 2007
Inside even the most troubled Aboriginal communities are individuals who understand what is wrong and how to begin to change it, accordingin to indigenous health researcher Janet Smylie...More
Call to lift smokeless tobacco ban - 11 May, 2007
The ban on smokeless tobacco in Australia should be removed, according to doctors who claim the substance is safer than cigarettes and may help long-term smokers to quit...More
Not enough for poorer seniors - 11 May, 2007
Aged-care advocates say the federal budget has not done enough to support low-income seniors or to prepare Australia for the growing demand on the aged-care system...More
A national picture of medical indemnity claims in Australia 2004-05 - posted 10 May, 2007
This report presents the first 12 months' data from the combined Medical Indemnity National Collection (MINC) of public and private sector medical indemnity claims...More
Are we ready? Healthcare preparedness for catastrophic terroism - posted 9 May, 2007
Researchers suggest that while positive steps have been taken in recent years, there are deficiencies in our healthcare system for mass casualty care...More
Obesity and Diabetes in Budget sights - 9 May, 2007
The Federal Government will spend almost $900 million to tackle preventable illness and head off the linked epidemics of diabetes and obesity...More
Malnutrition widespread in elderly patients - 9 May, 2007
Most elderly Australians admitted to hospital are suffering malnutrition, which significantly reduces their chance of recovering from an illness or accident...More
Rock like fields may fuel obesity - 7 May, 2007
The continuing drought could worsen Australia's childhood obesity crisis because children are being kept off barren sporting fields, a leading physiotherapist says...More
Fat fight is vital for teenagers - 5 May, 2007
A landmark obesity study has confirmed that 13 per cent of young Australians are extremely overweight, and most have piled on their extra kilos since childhood...More
Renal health alarming in remote WA - 5 May, 2007
Alarming rates of diabetes and kidney disease have been found among Aboriginal people in remote WA Goldfields communities, with more than a third of all adults showing early signs of kidney disease. Also found were several cases of undiagnosed kidney failure requiring dialysis...More
Rural health deserves the Government's attention - 5 May, 2007
IT must be an election year. The Prime Minister has coined the phrase "human dividend", and is now talking about its importance in policy development. Moving from a profit-based policy framework to a framework with more emphasis on the social impact is big news...More
Training of doctors set for revamp - 5 May, 2007
Australia's largest specialist medical college is launching a bid to make its next generation of doctors more caring and compassionate...More
Workchoice changes maintain flexibility and choice - 4 May, 2007
The Business Council said changes to WorkChoices announced today by the federal government would not impact on the overall ability of the legislation to promote greater flexibility and choice needed in a modern workplace...More
Deaths a cause for complaint - 4 May, 2007
Almost 10 per cent of claims against doctors are filed after medical negligence allegedly caused a patient to die...More
Flawed, but slip, slop, slap stays - 3 May, 2007
Cancer experts say they won't tamper with Australia's punchy "Slip, Slop, Slap" anti-sun slogan in light of new research which downplays the role of sunscreen...More
Bush health system in critical condition - 3 May, 2007
Outdated equipment at country hospitals and doctor shortages have led to a "crisis" in Australia's rural health system, according to medicos...More
Practice Nurses can do more - New Research shows - 2 May, 2007
Australia lags behind other countries in our use of practice nurses for chronic disease management, according to a new study published in the latest Australian Health Review...More
Rural Doctors have their say on how to fix rural health services - 2 May, 2007
Better resources for rural hospitals and consistent national assessment for overseas trained doctors (OTDs) were the two most pressing issues identified by rural doctors in a groundbreaking new national survey released today by the AMA...More
Rural health inequitable for GPs and Patients - 2 May 2007
The health system in rural and regional Australia is inequitable for patients and GPs according to the Australian General Practice Network (AGPN)...More
Healthier Numbers - 1 May, 2007
Reforms of private health cover - including the controversial 30 per cent rebate on premiums - are forecast to cut admissions to public hospitals by 15 per cent by 2010...More
Flu pandemic "inevitable" - 1 May, 2007
Australia must brace itself for an influenza disaster which can't be prevented, a US official has warned...More
State/Territory News
Kids food website helps parents - 1 May, 2007
A new website has been launched today to help parents fight the marketing spin from food companies and choose healthy options for their children...More
International
News
Drug misuse kills 200,000 Chinese a year - 21 May, 2007
About 200,000 people die in China each year from improper use of drugs, Chinese doctors and pharmacists said at a weekend meeting, and they called for greater efforts to educate consumers...More
Cancer rates soar in China - 21 May, 2007
Pollution and the excessive use of chemicals in foodstuffs are sending cancer rates soaring in China, where it is already the number one killer, state press said today...More
Health care disparities often put burden on patient - 17 May, 2007
Newspapers are increasing their coverage of racial differences in health care, but the bottom line on who bears the responsibility for health disparities varies widely from story to story...More
100 million tobacco deaths preventable - 17 May, 2007 (US)
Reducing the ranks of the world's smokers by a fifth before 2020 could save 100 million lives...More
Smoking Rate Among Japanese Men Falls to 20-Year Low - 17 May, 2007 (Bloomberg)
Smoking among Japanese men fell to the lowest rate in at least 20 years, indicating that the government's anti-smoking campaign is succeeding...More
Costs grow for common Medicare drugs - 13 May, 2007 (US)
After some initial success containing drug prices, private insurers in the new Medicare prescription drug program may be losing their leverage over drug manufacturers as they try to hold down medicine costs for seniors and the federal government. House investigators have found...More
Legislators ask to revise plan for hospitals - 10 May, 2007 (US)
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the State Legislature said Wednesday that they wanted Gov. Eliot Spitzer to reconsider a plan approved last year to close, merge or shrink dozens of hospitals across the state...More
Africa facing major cancer blight - 10 May, 2007 (UK)
A major conference is taking place in London to raise awareness about the cancer threat to Africa...More
Blair's legacy: Health - 10 May, 2007 (UK)
On the eve of the 1997 election, Tony Blair famously told voters they had 24 hours to save the NHS...More
Germany launches obesity campaign - 9 May, 2007 (Germany
)
The German government is launching an action plan to cut obesity rates sharply by 2020...More
Hospital markups on care toughest on poor: study - 8 May, 2007 (US)
In 2004, U.S. hospitals charged patients without health insurance and those who paid for care out of their own pockets an average of 2.5 times more for services than fees paid by health insurers, and 3 times more than Medicare-allowable costs, a new study finds...More
Patients and care service users left in limbo by failures to provide information - May 2007
(Picker Institute report) New research shows that patients and care service users are being left struggling to find information about services that could support them...More
Virulent new strain of TB raising fears of pandemic - 3 May, 2007 (Moscow)
A virulent strain of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs is surfacing around the globe, raising fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain TB and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS...More
Less sun a better bet than sunscreens - 3 May, 2007 (US)
Sun worshippers won't want to hear it, but a new study says the best way to protect cancer-causing ultraviolet rays is to avoid direct sunlight and wear protective clothing to keep exposure to a miniumum...More
U.N. agency launches effort against medical errors - 2 May, 2007
Medical mistakes as basic as hospital workers spreading infections by not washing their hands hurt millions of people worldwide each day, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday in launching an effort to curb such errors...More
NHS wastes millions on asthma - 1 May, 2007 (UK)
Three-quarters of emergency admissions for asthma in England could have been avoided, a report argues...More
Obesity screening for schoolchildren questioned - 1 May, 2007 (US)
Though routinely weighing schoolchildren may seem like a good way to fight childhood obesity, there's no evidence that it actually works, according to British researchers...More
Gifts to doctors widespread - 1 May, 2007 (US)
A survey of more than 1,600 physicians found that nearly all of them accepted free meals, drugs or travel reimbursement from pharmaceutical or medical-device manufacturers...More
Japan braces for aging tsunami - 30 April, 2007 (Japan)
The life expectancy for Japanese men is 78.56 years, the fourth-longest in the world...More
Other News
Accessing information about health and social care services - report Picker Institute (Europe)
A Healthy Workplace Action Strategy for Success and Sustainability in Canada’s Healthcare System - report by Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation
Building the Case for National Systems of Health Innovation: A Background Policy Paper prepared for NEPAD - report by the Open University
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