Labor health plan under fire - 21 November, 2007
Labor is under pressure to reveal how it will divide its promised $2.5 billion for health...More

Student medico's ask: Is there an actor in the house? - 21 November, 2007
Student doctors are diagnosing actors playing sick patients at the University of Sydney, while their counterpart nurses at Charles Darwin University are using a virtual hospital to learn to treat patients, all in the name of making the experience more real...More

Labor will undermine GPs: Abbott - 20 November, 2007
Health Minister Tony Abbott has intensified his attacks on Labor's health policies, claiming they are a "complete miasma" and that the Opposition's GP Super Clinics plan will undermine family doctors...More

Mental health rates look sicker than ever - 20 November, 2007
Opinion: Mental health problems such as depression, stress and anxiety will be the second-biggest global health cost in just over 10 years...More

Pain costs economy $34bn - 19 November, 2007
Persistent pain costs Australia $34 billion a year, with the condition costing the economy a whopping $11.7 billion annually in lost productivity, a report has found...More

Doctor crisis leaves 12m short of care - 19 November, 2007
Australia's doctor shortage has reached crisis point, with three-quarters of the country's land area, and more than 12 million people, now deemed as lacking adequate access to primary care...More

Coalition not on board with funding plan - 19 November, 2007
The Coalition is under fire for not declaring the cost of its proposal to create independent boards to run the nation's 750 public hospitals...More

Exemption guidelines for doctors need fixing: report - 17 November, 2007
The much-criticised system of regulating overseas-trained doctors has been dealt another blow, with the Department of Health and Ageing confirming the existence of a damning internal report on its distribution of Medicare provider numbers...More

People care about their health everyday, not just at election time - 17 November, 2007
Along with kissing babies, visiting hospitals is part of the job description for prime ministerial hopefuls. A regular sight on our evening news is the prime minister and the leader of the opposition strolling through hospital corridors, talking earnestly with patients about their experiences of health care...More

The momentum of mental health reform must not be lost - 17 November, 2007
Let's hope that soon after taking office the next health minister focuses immediately on the unfinished business of national mental health reform. Though little discussed during this campaign, mental disorders remain the largest cause of chronic ill-health in our community (27 per cent of all years lived with disability). Sadly, less than half of those with these difficulties receive any effective service...More

PM plans for aged frees up hospitals - 16 November, 2007
John Howard has pledged an extra $248million to allow 13,000 more elderly Australians to leave their hospital beds and live in the community...More

Carers count cost of duties - 16 November, 2007
ALMOST half of Australia's working carers are forced to take jobs beneath their skill or education level to get enough flexibility to look after a loved one...More

GP shortage in outer suburbs: report - 14 November, 2007
John Howard's bid to upstage Labor with a promise of after-hours medical clinics has been undermined by a federal government report, which reveals suburban GPs are already struggling to meet demand and unable to recruit enough staff...More

Australia fifth fattest OECD nation - 14 November, 2007
Australia is now one of the fattest nations in the developed world, according to a new international report which singles out the country's sky-rocketing obesity rate...More

Labor in health bid to retain personnel - 13 November, 2007
The spouses and children of defence force personnel living in remote areas of Australia will have their medical and dental bills paid under a Labor plan to help retain troops...More

Pioneer GP doubts 24-hr surgeries can now work - 10 November, 2007
A doctor who ran some of the last 24-hour GP clinics in Australia says they disappeared because they were not commercially viable -- and doubts they would prove viable again under the Coalition's proposed Family Medical Centres policy...More

Prevention, not cure, is vital to controlling budgets - 10 November, 2007
The current pressures on the Australian health care system demand some radical "surgery", as suggested by the AMA and many others. Injecting another $3 billion into the hospital system will help, at least in the short term, but a more sustainable approach to health must be seriously considered...More

National scheme funds flow to marginal seats - 7 November 2007
The states risk having their share of Labor's incentives for improving hospital care eroded as marginal-seat promises eat into the ALP's $2.5 billion "national" health plan...More

Pollies gutless on obesity: guru - 6 November, 2007
An international public health expert has slammed Australia for failing to show courage in dealing with obesity, which is set to affect four in 10 children by 2025...More

Minister attacks GP super clinics - 5 November 2007
Tony Abbott yesterday departed from the Coalition script, silencing the mantra of Labor's "me-too" campaign to attack the ALP's pledge to build GP super clinics...More

Only constant vigilance defends us from old and new diseases - 3 November, 2007
The recently released World Health Organisation's World Health Report 2007: A Safer Future holds some chilling messages for all of us facing life in the 21st century. According to WHO, the world faces a new era of infectious disease, and as usual the culprit is us...More

Hospitals cost-shifting exposes bid to balance books - 3 November 2007
A leading public hospital has been caught trying to shift the cost of an expensive brain cancer drug to the Commonwealth, in a sign that budgetary considerations continue to impact on doctors' clinical decisions...More

Doctors shunning Australia after Hannef case - 3 November, 2007
The number of overseas doctors seeking to work in Australia has fallen 90 per cent because of the federal government's handling of the case against former suspected terrorism supporter Mohamed Haneef, a medical association warns...More

Too few surgeons, beds for ALP plan - 2 November 2007
Private hospitals have warned they have limited capacity to deliver on a Labor plan to enlist them to shorten public hospital waiting lists...More

All night centres 'will relieve hospitals' - 2 November, 2007
Doctors will be encouraged toopen 24-hour family emergency clinics under a Coalition plan to take the pressure off public hospitals...More

Howards 'me too too' - 1 November, 2007
THE policy pilfering is continuing apace with the Coalition now countering Labor's pitch for local medical centres to ease the pressure on hospitals...More

Coalition shelves plans to take over Mersey - 1 November, 2007
The Coalition's promised takeover of Tasmania's Mersey hospital has been shelved at the 11th hour after the Medical Council of Tasmania raised serious concerns about the supervision of overseas doctors...More

State News

Fears of looming health disaster - 1 November, 2007
A prominent businessman has warned that problems at the Royal North Shore hospital are indicative of a health system heading for "major distress" which will suffer more than any other sector from a skills crisis over the next decade...More

Patient privacy rules to hinder study - 14 November, 2007
A federal patient privacy rule has had a chilling effect on medical research, making it tougher to recruit patients and use their health records, the first national survey on the topic suggests...More

Poll finds broad business support for health plan - 14 November, 2007
Most surveyed say law should target all firms...More

A model for health care that pays for quality - 7 November, 2007
Seeing low fees for family doctors as a weak link in the nation’s health care system, some big employers and health insurers are seeking new ways to pay doctors to reward high-quality medical care...More

Employers shift focus to prevent obesity - 7 November, 2007
The seven most common chronic diseases - six of which can be caused or worsened by obesity - are costing employers $1.1trillion in lost productivity, a recent study says...More

Elderly health costs growing slowly - 7 November, 2007
Health care spending for people under 65 is growing faster than for those over that benchmark age, the government reported Tuesday...More 

Other Reports

Public Attitudes to health promotion and disease prevention
VicHealth full report

Responding to health skills shortages: innovative directions from vocational education and training
National Centre for Vocation Education and Research for full text

MJA - latest articles around on the federal election and the health system
Articles can be accessed through the MJA website

Department of Health and Ageing Annual Report 2006-2007
For full report go to the DoHA website

Primary health care in the Kimberley: Is the doctor shortage much bigger than we think?
Australian Journal of Rural Health 2007: 15(6) - for full paper

Implementing chronic disease self-management in community settings: lesssons from Australian demonstration projects
Australian Health Review 2007; 31(4) - for full abstract