Q85 Medical and Other Health Care Services

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

Ambulance waiting times getting longer

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Original article by Julia Medew, Craig Butt
The Age – Page: 2 : 10-Dec-14

A court bid under Freedom of Information laws has resulted in the paramedics’ union gaining access to statistics kept by Ambulance Victoria. The data show that ambulance response times have deteriorated, with 86,739 patients in a serious condition having to wait more than a quarter of an hour in 2013. This was equivalent to some 28% of all such cases, and an increase from the 19% recorded in the 2010 study by the Victorian Auditor-General. The newly-elected State Government has vowed to lift spending on the ambulance service by $A100m

CORPORATES
AMBULANCE VICTORIA FIRST AID, AMBULANCE EMPLOYEES AUSTRALIA, VICTORIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, VICTORIA. AUDITOR-GENERAL’S OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Dementia a personal issue for campaigner

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Original article by Rachel Browne
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 11 : 9-Dec-14

Richard Grellman is one of about 30 prominent Australian businesspeople supporting the Dementia Momentum corporate philanthropic endowment. The wife of the AMP Life Insurance, Genworth Mortgage Insurance and Crowe Horwath chair developed young onset Alzheimer’s disease. Another backer of the entity, established to provide funding for research into the affliction, is Anchorage Capital Partners MD Phillip Cave

CORPORATES
DEMENTIA MOMENTUM, AMP LIFE LIMITED, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, GENWORTH MORTGAGE INSURANCE AUSTRALIA LIMITED – ASX GMA, CROWE HORWATH AUSTRALASIA LIMITED – ASX CRH, ANCHORAGE CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. CENTRE FOR HEALTHY BRAIN AGEING, AUSTRALIA. NATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Obese youth can lose eight years off their lives

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Original article by Nicky Phillips
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 9 : 8-Dec-14

Margaret Allman-Farinelli, nutrition researcher at the University of Sydney, says new studies show that weight control programs aimed at young adults only have an effect in about half of all cases. Australians between the ages of 25 and 34 on average put on 6.7 kilograms over that period, as their activity levels drop and they start cooking their own meals. Meanwhile, new modelling conducted in Canada suggests that those overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 to 30 face a reduction in life expectancy of three years, and those obese with a BMI between 30 and 35 one of up to eight years

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY. CHARLES PERKINS CENTRE

New advice on prostate tests

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Original article by Cathy O’Leary
The West Australian – Page: 13 : 5-Dec-14

It is estimated that about 22,000 men in Australia are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. Around 20 per cent of men in the 45-74 age group undergo a prostate specific antigen test each year, but guidelines released by an expert advisory panel on 4 December 2014 suggest that these tests be restricted to the 50+ age group. There are doubts about the effectiveness of this test, and some experts are concerned that it can cause medical complications

CORPORATES
CANCER COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA

Cancer drug gives hope but is still on the waiting list

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Original article by Julia Medew
The Age – Page: 13 : 5-Dec-14

Some 300 Australians annually, or 5% of all who are suffering from lung cancer, can benefit substantially from Pfizer’s Crizotinib drug. It can boost the life expectancy of the patients, which is especially important as the non-small cell lung cancer variant tends to affect young people more. However the cost of the treatment is $A90,000 per year, and the Federal Government may not approve the drug for subsidies under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme in late 2014

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE, PFIZER PTY LTD, PETER MACCALLUM CANCER INSTITUTE

Pharmacists’ push to immunise children fought by doctors

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Original article by Amy Corderoy
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 13 : 5-Dec-14

Saxon Smith, president of the Australian Medical Association’s New South Wales (NSW) branch, says it will lobby fiercely against any move to allow pharmacists to carry out more vaccinations. The NSW branch director of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Steven Drew, had claimed that such a proposal had been given in-principle support by State Health Minister Jillian Skinner. However the Government and pharmacists remain at loggerheads over the extent of qualifications needed in order to offer the service. It has been successfully trialled in Queensland

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (NSW) LIMITED, NEW SOUTH WALES. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES BRANCH) LIMITED

Doubt over mental health plan

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Original article by Cathy O’Leary
The West Australian – Page: 11 : 4-Dec-14

The Western Australian Government will seek submission on its mental health plan until March 2015. Mental Health Minister Helen Morton estimates that at most the reforms will cost $A600m. The Australian Medical Association notes that the 10-year plan fails to resolve the state’s shortage of psychiatrists, while Alison Xamon of the WA Mental Health Association believes that additional mental health services should be made available more quickly

CORPORATES
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (WESTERN AUSTRALIA), WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH INCORPORATED

Bionic eye closer to trials on humans

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Original article by Bridie Smith
The Age – Page: 8 : 3-Dec-14

Monash University is matching dollar-for-dollar the donations by the charitable foundations of chancellor Alan Finkel and entrepreneur Marc Besen to the Monash Vision Group. The funding of $A3m in total will enable the bionic eye researchers to proceed to human trials in 2015. The expenditure on the project has averaged $A2.5m per annum, but Monash Vision director Arthur Lowery notes that there will be no further grants by the Australian Research Council. Monash Vision is a joint effort of Monash University, Alfred Health, MiniFAB and Grey Innovation

CORPORATES
MONASH VISION PTY LTD, MONASH UNIVERSITY, ALFRED HEALTHCARE GROUP, MINIFAB (AUST) PTY LTD, GREY INNOVATION PTY LTD, BIONIC VISION AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL, AUSTRALIA. NATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, BESEN FAMILY FOUNDATION

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