Q84 Hospitals

Rookie doctors set record on front line

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Original article by Cathy O’Leary
The West Australian – Page: 5 : 15-Jan-15

The number of junior doctors undertaking their internships in Western Australian hospitals will rise from 312 in 2014 to a record 324 in 2015. About 290 of the new graduates undertook their medical studies at the state’s universities. Health Minister Kim Hames notes that the number of doctors who were trained in the state has doubled since 2008. Meanwhile, Curtin University has advised that its proposed medical school at Midland is unlikely to open before 2017. It was originally mooted to open in 2009

CORPORATES
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FIONA STANLEY HOSPITAL, PERTH CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, ROYAL PERTH HOSPITAL, HOLLYWOOD PRIVATE HOSPITAL, PEEL HEALTH CAMPUS, JOONDALUP HEALTH CAMPUS

Medicare cuts threaten emergency departments

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Original article by Julia Medew
The Age – Page: 7 : 14-Jan-15

Stephen Parnis, vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, has warned of increased stress on hospital emergency departments. He argued that the experience in the UK showed the Australian Government’s planned cuts worth $A3.5bn to the Medicare bulk billing system would lead to patients avoiding general practitioner (GP) visits and instead present at public hospitals. While Simon Judkins of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine agrees, he says an even greater issue will be patients with multiple illnesses failing to visit GPs as they can no longer afford to seek appropriate care

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION LIMITED, THE AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE FOR EMERGENCY MEDICINE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA, VICTORIA. DEPT OF HEALTH

Hospital delay puts system to alert public under scrutiny

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Original article by James Robertson
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 7 : 7-Jan-15

New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner and Danny O’Connor, CEO of the Western Sydney Local Health District, have rejected claims of a lack of transparency. While Blacktown Hospital conceded that excessive waiting times were experienced at its emergency department in early January 2015, there has been no official data issued on one patient who allegedly had to wait as long as 40 hours. Paramedics argue that long delays were caused by the hospital’s temporary closing of 60 beds

CORPORATES
WESTERN SYDNEY HEALTH, NEW SOUTH WALES. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, BLACKTOWN HOSPITAL

Patients wait too long for life-saving care – report

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Original article by Nicole Hasham
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 11 : 10-Dec-14

The Auditor-General’s office in New South Wales (NSW) has issued the latest survey of public hospital emergency department performance. It shows an improvement on 2013, despite a rise in patient numbers to close to 2.7 million. However waiting times at hospitals in the Sydney, Central Coast and Western NSW health districts were unacceptably long, as the facilities failed to meet the standard of four fifths of patients being treated within 10 minutes. Ambulance response times meanwhile have fallen to 10.8 minutes, in the biggest improvement since 2009

CORPORATES
NEW SOUTH WALES. AUDITOR GENERAL’S DEPT, NEW SOUTH WALES. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, GOSFORD HOSPITAL, ROYAL PRINCE ALFRED HOSPITAL, CONCORD HOSPITAL, CANTERBURY HOSPITAL, AMBULANCE SERVICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Many patients wait too long

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Original article by Harriet Alexander
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 11 : 4-Dec-14

New data released by the Bureau of Health Information shows that Western Sydney hospitals have failed to meet targets for treatment times. At Westmead Hospital, 45 per cent of patients were treated within four hours in the third quarter of 2014. The corresponding ratio for Mount Druitt, Campbelltown and Nepean is below 60 per cent

CORPORATES
NEW SOUTH WALES. BUREAU OF HEALTH INFORMATION, WESTMEAD HOSPITAL, BLACKTOWN HOSPITAL, ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, NEW SOUTH WALES. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, WESTMEAD PRIVATE HOSPITAL PTY LTD, MOUNT DRUITT HOSPITAL

Doctors warn against selling hospital land

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Original article by Harriet Alexander
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 10 : 3-Dec-14

Doctors at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital are calling on New South Wales (NSW) Health Minister Jillian Skinner to honour a previously made promise not to divest part of the institution’s grounds. The real estate may generate a gain of $A97m for the NSW Government, but according to the medical practitioners will leave the facility unable to cope with growing demand as the population increases. Medical Staff Council representative Bruce Cooper notes that the hospital will exceed its current capacity in between three and four decades

CORPORATES
ROYAL NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL, NEW SOUTH WALES. MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Phillip Hughes death: ‘Very rare, very freakish’ condition

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Original article by Melanie Kembrey
The Age – Page: online : 28-Nov-14

Doctors have commented on the nature of the sports injury that led to the death of a cricket player in Sydney. Peter Brukner, the team doctor of the Australian national squad, said the incident in which a ball struck the neck of 25-year-old Phillip Hughes and split his vertebral artery was "incredibly rare". The victim suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage and died in St Vincent’s Hospital despite having been resuscitated at the scene of the accident. Brukner said the hospital staff and the paramedics attending did a very good job under the circumstances

CORPORATES
ST VINCENT’S HOSPITAL SYDNEY LIMITED, SYDNEY CRICKET GROUND, CRICKET NEW SOUTH WALES, CRICKET AUSTRALIA

Conflicting vows worry hospitals

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Original article by Julia Medew, Kate Hagan
The Age – Page: 9 : 27-Nov-14

New spending of similar magnitude has been pledged by both major parties on hospitals, in the final week of the campaign for the Victorian state election on 29 November 2014. However, there are also significant differences, with the Government favouring the Monash Children’s hospital and the Northern Hospital in Epping, while the Australian Labor Party has a focus on Orygen Youth Health in Parkville and a women’s and children’s hospital in Sunshine. Even the details for the proposed heart hospital in Clayton promised by both sides differ

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ORYGEN YOUTH HEALTH, MONASH CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, MONASH MEDICAL CENTRE, MONASH UNIVERSITY, NORTHERN HOSPITAL

Doctors criticise parties for vague poll bed promises

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Original article by Kate Hagan
The Age – Page: 5 : 26-Nov-14

Tony Bartone, president in Victoria of the Australian Medical Association, has said neither major political party is convincing on health in the campaigns for the 29 November 2014 state election. He criticised the Government’s failure to issue details on where a supposed 800 new hospital beds have been allocated. Meanwhile the pledge to invest $A200m in under-utilised hospitals by the Australian Labor Party was also not addressing the longer-term issue of an ageing population. The Coalition has vowed to open a further 800 beds if re-elected

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (VICTORIA) LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF HEALTH AND WELFARE, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ANGLISS HOSPITAL, CASEY HOSPITAL, MONASH MEDICAL CENTRE, NORTHERN HOSPITAL, BALLARAT HEALTH SERVICES

End of an era for Primary Health Care as founder ‘Dr Ed’ Bateman retires

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Original article by Damon Kitney
The Australian – Page: 19 : 25-Nov-14

The 2014 AGM of Primary Health Care will hear that founder and MD Edmund Bateman is planning to retire soon, due to ill health. The medical centres as well as pathology and radiology services operator has engaged Sheldon Harris Management Consulting to identify a successor, and among the internal frontrunners are sons Henry and James Bateman. Their father has been at the helm for some three decades, and suffered his main setback when the acquisition of rival Symbion coincided with the start of the global financial crisis in 2008

CORPORATES
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE LIMITED – ASX PRY, SYMBION HEALTH LIMITED, AUSBIL DEXIA LIMITED, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, SWIMMING AUSTRALIA, SHELDON-HARRIS PTY LTD, RUSSELL REYNOLDS ASSOCIATES INCORPORATED, SPENCER STUART AND ASSOCIATES