$300m plan to free up hospital beds - 28 June, 2008
Kevin Rudd will spend nearly $300 million to shift frail elderly people clogging up public hospital beds back into their homes - freeing up beds for people with acute illnesses and shortening hospital waiting lists...More

Clinics must do more than plug gaps - 28 June, 2008
Opinion: In these pages last year (Weekend Health, 24 November) I suggested that co-ordinated primary care for chronic disease patients was unlikely to lead to lower hospital admissions...More

Warning to funds over health levy - 27 June, 2008
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has warned health insurers not to cite her move to lift thresholds on the Medicare surcharge levy as a reason to demand government approval for increased insurance premiums...More

GPs increase, but so does their daily burden - 25 June, 2008
The ageing of the population and doctors increasing reluctance to work overtime is putting pressure on the GP workforce - meaning each general practitioner in 2005 was having to handle and extra 94 patients on average compared with 1997...More

No proof that we're the fattest in world - 25 June, 2008
Australia may be fat, and getting fatter, but ther is no evidence that it is the fattest country in the world - contrary to the blizzard of recent media reports warning the country is a ticking 'fat bomb' about to explode...More

We lead world's second-longest lives, says health report - 25 June, 2008
Australians are living longer than ever as death rates from the big killers of heart disease and cancer fall and smoking continues to wane in popularity...More

'Poor patients miss out': Catholic Health Australia - 21 June, 2008
An ombudsman should be set up to ensure patients with poor access to health services - including the homeless, the mentally ill, the poor and rural Australians - get the treatment they need...More

Better access avoids any referendum - 21 June, 2008
Australians have an excellent record of voting down referendum proposals. Expect that to turn around if we get to vote on the referendum question promised during the federal election campaign...More

Wider role for allied health staff backed - 14 June, 2008
Allied health and other medical groups have welcomed the federal Government's move to foreshadow a greater role for nurses, physiotherapists and others under Medicare, with one organisation describing it as "a decision of major potential importance"...More

Aged care population older, frailer - 12 June, 2008
An increasing number of elderly people are coming into aged care facilities only when they need intense levels of care...More

Health workers to the front line to combat GP shortage - 11 June, 2008
Nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and dieticians will be thrust to the front line of the nation's primary health care system as part of a federal government plan to combat a chronic shortage of general practitioners...More

Survival crisis hits not-for-profit sector - 7 June, 2008
Many non-profit organisations are facing a crisis for survival, partly because they have never had so much income...More

$6m boost to locum plan wins praise - 7 June, 2008
Doctors have welcomed the federal Government's move to spend an extra $6million on a scheme that gives relief to hard-pressed rural obstetricians, saying it is the "best news for the 30 percent of Australians who live and have their babies in the country"...More

Heart disease rate 30pc higher among Aboriginies - 5 June, 2008
Cardiovascular disease is 30 per cent more common among indigenous people than other Australians, with up to one in eight Aborigines having some chronic form of the condition...More

Clinics stacked in Labor electorate - 5 June, 2008
More than two-thirds of the Rudd Government's new GP super clinics will be located in Labor-held seats, sparking further allegations of pork-barelling by the Government...More

Private health 'will recover' - 5 June, 2008
Private health membership will take two to three years to recover from the "one-off shock" of budget changes to the Medicare levy surcharge, according to government officials..More

State News

Dismantling rural services bad policy - 14 June, 2008
On Thursday evening last week, just after the South Australian budget had been handed down and on the eve of the long weekend, the SA Government announced its 10-year plan for rural health services in the state -- a plan that could put the welfare of 400,000 country South Australians in jeopardy...More

Hub hospital scheme will 'destroy' rural service - 7 June, 2008
More than 40 rural hospitals will be reduced to little more than 'observation posts' under a South Australian government plan that doctors will "rip the heart and soul out of small towns"...More 

NSW Treasurer Michael Costa tells Canberra to finance hospitals - 5 June, 2008
NSW Treasurer Michael Costa urged the Rudd Government to take over financial control of public hospitals as the best way of improving health services and taking pressure of state budgets...More

New measures to aim at prevention - 4 June, 2008
A billion dollar increase in Queensland health funding has been accompanied by a string of new performance measures as the Bligh Government tries to shift focus from acute care to prevention, promotion and protection...More

Community health services in NSW upgraded - 4 June, 2008
The NSW Government will spend about $27 million in the fist stage of a $205 million program to build, operate and maintain water and sewage facilities in Aboriginal communities...More

International News

CDC: About 8 percent of Americans have diabetes - 25 June, 2008
The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S population, the government said Tuesday...More

Rising employer premiums threaten employee health coverage in Washington, AARP finds - 23 June, 2008
More than a quarter of Washington business say they will drop their health-insurance policies if costs go up 15 percent more...More

Australians more obese than Americans, study finds - 20 June, 2008
Australia has a higher proportion of obese people than the United States, with the health system facing a 'fat bomb' unless action is taken, a study warned...More

Microsoft, Kaiser to launch new health-records program - 9 June, 2008
Microsoft Corp. and healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente plan to launch a pilot program to exchange patient information, the latest in a series of efforts to allow people to better maintain control over their health records...More

Communities to get $300million to tackle health - 7 June, 2008
Reducing … racial and regional disparities, detailed by researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, will be a major focus of a $300 million initiative to be announced Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...More
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Other Reports

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

Australia's Health 2008
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report now available