The Health Wrap: the vexed issues of antivaxxers, Medicare musings, weighty issues, meeting mental health needs, and measuring poverty
It’s with pleasure I introduce this week’s Health Wrap from my colleague Megan Howe, who recently joined the Sax Institute as Publicat... Read more
The Health Wrap: On Closing the Gap; persistent policy pickles; lessons for Oz in heated US vaccine debate?
By Kellie Bisset On Closing the Gap This fortnight, we learned that Australia’s progress in closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage was, in the words of the Prime Minister, “p... Read more
“Ebola is not a natural disaster. It is a disease fostered by poverty…” Greens Senator Richard Di Natale on his trip to Liberia, Sierra Leone
The headline death toll of Ebola “does not do justice to the profound and far-reaching impact of this disease”, says Greens Senator Richard Di Natale in his powerful report to Pa... Read more
Australia’s first Physician Assistant graduates hold promise to better health care access
Today has been a landmark day in Australian health, particularly for rural and regional areas, with the country’s first graduation of a cohort of bachelor degree trained physician assi... Read more
Tony Abbott’s Medicare “deforms” or How to Trick Senators 1.01
The Federal Government’s co-payments Plan B will add another layer of co-payment complexity to the Medicare system that neither doctors nor patients fully understand now. That raises a... Read more
This post below from Professor John Turnidge, Senior Medical Advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, marks Antibiotic Awareness Week (Nov 17-23). It outli... Read more
Living longer, but chronic disease toll rising: Australia’s 14th biennial health report card (and what of its own future?)
We are living longer, have lower death rates for cancer and many other diseases, and a health system that people say they are mostly happy with. But chronic diseases related to our ageing po... Read more
GP co-payments risk efforts to protect public health, combat communicable disease
Most concerns about the Federal Budget’s imposition of a $7 GP co-payment have been around its impact on the health of vulnerable individuals and families. Below Catherine Bateman-Steel and... Read more
By Kellie Bisset What the evidence uncovered Evidence has turned the tables on two issues this past fortnight: whether our multimillion national investment in antiviral drugs is justified; a... Read more
A need for more vaccination advocacy
Should the public health community be doing more to promote the benefits of vaccination? Yes, says Dr Melissa Stoneham from the Public Health Advocacy Institute WA. In the latest edition of... Read more