One of the key platforms of the first Rudd government was to reform the health and hospital system. The key message from then-prime minister Kevin Rudd was that the health, and particularly hospitals…
Everyone seems to prefer a big punch up.
Flickr/Peacay
It’s a traditional part of the theatre of health policy for trade unionists to give secretaries of state for health a hard time. The latest example of this was the vote of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt…
A game of two halves: publishing performance can improve services but could also affect who surgeons choose to take on.
PA/Gareth Fuller
Gwyn Bevan, London School of Economics and Political Science
Data on hospital performance often shows a wide variation and this poses the question of whether it should be available to the public or kept confidential. The government wants more transparency and announced…
Emergencies only but are people turning to A&E because they find it difficult to see a GP?
Flickr/lydia_shiningbrightly
New research linking less access to GPs and higher demand in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments could ignite the row over the A&E crisis. The number of people visiting A&E in England…
Hear ye, hear ye: keep your hands off our hospital.
PA/Lewis Whyld
The public often suspects that the financial crisis is the real cause of hospital closures, even when other reasons are given. The NHS has found it virtually impossible to proceed with closing, or even…
Passions run high when it comes to the NHS but despite some unprecedented challenges it will do what it always does - survive.
PA
The NHS in 2013 is facing a series of unprecedented challenges. A rapidly ageing population is just one of a number of factors fuelling a rise in demand for services and hospitals are struggling to cope…
Four hours in A&E? Haven’t you got homes to go to?
Rui Vieira/PA
Politicians and policy makers are blaming failures in out-of-hours GP care for the rising demand on accident and emergency (A&E) units. The number of attendances at A&E departments in England rose…
GPs and hospitals aren’t incentivised to properly manage demand, which has contributed to the crisis in Accident & Emergency.
PA/Stephen Kelly
Our increasing use of hospital services is out of control and unsustainable and is contributing to the current crisis in accident and emergency (A&E). But the problem isn’t new and 30 years of NHS…
The UK has a strict policy of gender segregation on psychiatric wards, and so should Australia.
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Women admitted to psychiatry wards experience high levels of violence and sexual assaults, according to a report released this week by the Victorian Mental Illness Alliance Council. Across the nine different…
David Cameron meets nurses during an NHS tour but the government doesn’t want to introduce mandatory staffing levels.
PA
Senior nurses warned this week that the number of patients looked after by nurses has become dangerously high in some hospitals. Quoting research from the University of Southampton, the Safe Staffing Alliance…
Like much of what we see on TV, this one’s a myth.
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Beep….beep……….beep……….beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. “We’re losing him. Out of my way, nurse!” The quick-thinking young doctor charges the defibrillator paddles and places them on the chest of the lifeless…
The biggest and fastest-growing spending category in health is hospitals.
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With health costs rising and costly medical innovations on the horizon, it’s crunch time for health funding. In the lead up to the May budget, The Conversation’s experts will explore the options for reining…
After months of battle between the Commonwealth and Victorian governments on hospital funding, Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek dramatically intervened last Wednesday by announcing a A$107 million…
The Commonwealth and Victorian governments blame each other for hospital budget cuts.
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As Victorian hospitals have announced bed closures, job losses and elective surgery delays over the past six weeks, cuts to health service budgets look set to significantly affect patient care in the state…
ED congestion is due to the combination of growing demand for care, sicker patients and access block.
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Data released today by the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA) shows just 54% of major metropolitan hospitals and 63% of major regional hospitals are treating or admitting patients within the…
The first of July saw the introduction of one of the most important health care reforms for Australia’s public hospitals: national activity-based funding (ABF). Hospitals will now be paid a fixed price…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne