The following health and related news items are sourced from National, State and online news, current affairs and opinion sites for May 2008.  News is archived monthly into the News Archives

National News
State News
International News
Other News & Reports

National News

National Prevention Summit Media...More

One-stop shop for Centrelink, Medicare - 28 May, 2008
Some Centrelink and Medicare outlets will be combined into "one stop government shops" under a Labor plan to improve access for customers...More

Public hospitals told to shape up - 28 May, 2008
Public hospitals will be told to measure up to private ones, on price transparency as well as healthcare quality, to earn commonwealth funding...More

More spending cuts in mental health - 26 May, 2008
Mental health programs are being stripped of a further $56 million over four years - on top of the $188 million cut to nurse incentives already revealed - as part of the Governments $500million budget squeeze on health spending...More

Health needs must over-rule Treasury - 24 May, 2008
Dr Michael Wooldridge famously remarked that the Australian health minister needs to decide whether he or she is the Minister for Health or the Minister for Health Financing...More

Hospitals clogged by private patients - 22 May, 2008
The states' public hospitals are massively ramping up their private patient revenue and numbers, despite clearing their own long waiting lists by paying private hospitals to treat the uninsured...More

Medicare levy is 'poor policy' - 21 May, 2008
Access Economics has joined the queue of organisations accusing the Rudd Government of bungling the costings on its controversial Medicare levy surcharge, in a report to be released by the Australian Medical Association today...More

Inadequate hospitals neglect 19 out of 20 obese kids - 21 May, 2008
Australia lacks the specialist hospital services to cope with even one in 20 of its growing population of obese children, with some having to wait up to a year for an appointment...More

Private health appeals for access to $10bm infrastructure fund - 20 May, 2008
The private health industry, one of the losers form last week's budget, is now lobbying to avoid being shut out of the Rudd Government's largest health promise - its flagship $10billion health infrastructure fund...More

Parents want junk food ads banned - 19 May, 2008
The vast majority of parents support a ban on advertising junk food to children, particularly on television, according to a new survey...More

Health revamp eyes private funds - 19 May, 2008
Private health funds will pay more for members in public hospitals under a radical overhaul of hospital funding...More

An odd pill for a sick industry - 17 May, 2008
On budget night, the Rudd Government got to work on Australia's health system. It delivered a dose of good news with its $10 billion fund to finance future health and hospital infrastructure, before surgically removing a few hundred million dollars from general practice, pathology, drug wholesalers and dispensers...More

Nicola Roxon sidesteps opt-out effects - 17 May, 2008
Health Minister Nicola Roxon has insisted that extra federal funding will boost standards in public hospitals but has refused to comment on whether a crash in private health insurance to be triggered by budget changes will wipe out the gains...More

Change to surcharge takes a big risk - 14 May, 2008
Wayne Swan's first budget will create longer waiting lists in public hospitals, at least in the short term...More

Ageing boomers 'will not bankrupt healthcare' - 14 May, 2008
Ageing baby boomers are not going to bankrupt the healthcare system, contrary to widespread public and political belief...More

Trained staff urged to lighten load in wards - 14 May, 2008
With one-third of nurses to retire in teh next decade, and about 4000 too few graduate entering the workforce each year, Olivia Watson represents the new breed the country so desperately needs...More

States want cash for Medicare change - 13 May, 2008
The states have demanded the Rudd Government cough up more money for healthcare agreements if changes to its Medicare surcharge cause a surge in the number of people using public hospitals...More

Health surcharge relief perfectly timed - 13 May, 2008
The Goverment has revealed it intends to life the Medicare surcharge threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples in tonight's budget...More

Choice at a premium - 13 May, 2008
Younger, healthier and wealthier Australians are the ones who will think most seriously about dropping their private health insurance as a result of the latest government changes...More

Call for tax rebates on fresh fruit and veg - 13 May, 2008
Lobby groups have issued a budget-eve calls for new strategies to fight obesity, such as tax rebates for fruit and vegetable purchases to regulation of food fat content, as the Government prepares to boost preventive healthcare funding...More

Private health premiums tipped to rise - 12 May, 2008
The doubling of the threshold at which the Medicare levy surcharge applies could lead to premiums on private health insurance rising by between 10 and 15 per cent...More

Much need, but stay-on-course budget likely - 10 May, 2008
What will Tuesday's federal budget bring to resuscitate the health system? Can the various lobby groups be kept reasonably happy while a new approach to health policy and funding is commenced? Kevin Rudd's hand-picked health reform commission, the National Health and Hospital Commission, made initial recommendations this week...More

Changes ahead in mental health - 9 May, 2008
Significant changes to the Howard government's $1.8billion mental health program are expected in next week's federal budget, with the aim of giving people outside cities better access to mental health services...More

Commission recommends federal health takeover - 8 May, 2008
Kevin Rudd's hand-picked health reform commission has recommended the commonwealth wrest some health roles from the states, including running community and mental health services...More

Abbott sets $17bn challenge - 6 May, 2008
Labor will have to spend at least $17bn more on Australia's public hospitals over the next five years if it is to match the Coalition's pre-election plans for the sector, former federal health minister, Tony Abbott says...More

Injury prevention is the best treatment - 3 May, 2008
Opinion: A major focus on injury prevention offers many benefits...More

Rural medical crisis wider than just GPs - 3 May, 2008
Take 886 GPs, and them all of remote Australia to service.  Then take the other 24, 678 and hand them to the rest of the nation, with the proviso that seven out of every 10 work in the biggest cities...More

Rural health incentives fail - 1 May, 2008
Health policies designed to lure doctors to rural and remote areas are designed on 17-year-old population data and have comprehensively failed...More

State News

Hospitals failing six out of nine benchmarks - 14 May, 2008
Victorian hospitals met only three of nine key performance indicators in the six months to last December but Health Minister Daniel Andrews remains upbeat about the state's public health system...More

International News

Hospital-only doctors on rise in U.S. - 12 May, 2008
Called the fastest-growing medical specialty in the country by the Society of Hospital Medicine, the estimated number of hospitalists is projected to grow to about 30,000 by 2010 - from 20,000 in 2008...More

E.R.'s are busy, but few patients are uninsured - 8 May, 2008
It is often said that emergency rooms are crowded because of the disproportinate number of uninsured people using them...More

Costs of overtreating patients - 8 May, 2008
Doctors are frequently criticized for the things they fail to do...More

Slowdown's side effect: More nurses - 8 May, 2008
The ailing economy is helping to ease the nursing shortage...More

Healthcare costs pinch employers - 8 May, 2008
U.S manufacturers who provide health insurance spend an average of $2.38 per worker per hour on healthcare...More

Health Savings Accounts favor the wealthy - 1 May, 2008
A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office suggests that health savings accounts are fine for the rich — but that’s about it...More


Other Reports

Evidence-Practice Gaps report Volume 1: A review of developments 2004-2007
NHMRC Report now available