by KARA THOMAS & ANDREW McINTYRE – MEDICINE was never meant to follow ideology. It is meant to follow evidence, ethics and the promise of “first, do no harm”. Yet across Australia, many doctors and nurses now feel that promise is under…
by CRYSTAL-ROSE JONES – ABORIGINAL patients presenting to Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital are given a “category 3” priority, meaning they must be treated within 30 minutes. Former nurse and now-shadow Victorian health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier has called hospital rules designed to prioritise…
by FRED PAWLE – AUSTRALIA’S generosity to migrants is making us, as a population, poorer and less healthy, which is reflected in alarming new statistics regarding childbirths in public hospitals. My first editor, at a tiny rural newspaper in southwest WA in…
by PAUL COLLITS – A FRIEND in the Deep North recently told me, “if you feel pain, catch a plane”. In other words, if you are sick in regional Australia don’t expect to get well in a regional public hospital. Doctors lack…
by PAUL COLLITS – EVILDOERS are not always stereotypical monsters, like Jack the Ripper, but are often disguised as middle level bureaucrats – just following orders. Hannah Arendt had a simple argument in her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Computer screen-savers in Queensland…
by FRED PAWLE – IT TAKES political cunning to deal with State-funded medical staff boasting about killing patients. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns rise to the challenge. “You’ve got to jail people. Not just anybody who breaks the…
by JOHN MIKKELSEN – BOB Hawke once infamously referred to a senior citizen as a “silly old bugger” before he inevitably became one. But it seems bureaucrats and some private enterprise operators want to make life ever more complicated for this significant…
by MONICA O’SHEA – FEDERAL Health Minister Mark Butler is continuing to advocate for a global pandemic agreement, telling WHO “we can’t afford to fail”. Speaking on behalf of Australia at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Mr Butler advocated for…
by JOHN MIKKELSEN – I OFTEN wonder how many Australians, like me, have found communicating with our national health bureaucracy about as easy as winning the lottery? “Oh, it shouldn’t be too hard, their website contains a 24-hour contact number, right?” Might…
by ROGER CROOK – IT WAS a cynical act by Albanese’s Labor government to open the gates to more than 500k immigrants, when they knew there was nowhere for them to live? It was callous to welcome these people when they knew…
