In a high-pressure surgical environment, where older male consultants dominate, and there is great competition for training positions and jobs, women are vulnerable to sexual harassment.
The 2015 Intergenerational Report gives only half the picture of health care spending.
LUKAS COCH/AAP
The problems currently crippling the NHS and social care are not happening in a vacuum. The A&E crisis and the critical lack of beds are related to politicians’ love for large-scale, rapid and untested…
Most people overestimate the benefits and underestimate the harms of medical intervention.
Barbara M./Flickr
“It might do me some good and it won’t hurt to give it a go.” How often have you heard a phrase like this? Most people have naïve optimism about medical care. That’s the finding of a systematic review…
Physician assistants provide high-quality care and can help fill Australia’s rural doctor shortage.
Dr.Farouk/Flickr
At a ceremony in Townsville today, four people will graduate from James Cook University’s physician assistant program. They will be Australia’s first bachelor’s graduates in that field. This is an important…
For patients, the availability of beds is more important than the overall number.
Emily Orpin/Flickr
Scanning through the media coverage of the major parties’ health policies one could be forgiven for thinking that hospital beds are the key to health. Sure, hospital spending dominates the health budget…
Elderly patients increasingly have multiple illnesses and are much more difficult to care for.
Julian Rovagnati/Shutterstock
New medical technologies and treatments over the past few decades have led to remarkable improvements in treating older patients. The annual death rate for an 80-year-old male in 2011 was just 5.6%, compared…
Nation wide, rapid response teams save around 12,000 lives per year.
AAP
Detecting and treating patients before they have a cardiac arrest isn’t rocket science, but it’s a life saver. Rapid response systems identify deteriorating patients by abnormal vital signs and observations…
Health policy debate over the past few months has been held to a $7 ransom. It’s as if the Medicare co-payment has been deified as the solution to all the health system’s ills. Of course, the $7 co-payment…
As the queue grows, small increases in waiting times soon turn into dramatic spikes.
Fotoluminate LLC/Shutterstock
The introduction of a GP co-payment could see average emergency department visits increase by between six minutes and almost three hours, new modelling shows, as more patients opt for free hospital care…
To Accident and Emergency, post haste!
William Woolnoth engraving/Rotational
Today, we cherish local hospitals and the services they offer, even though we might criticise their shortcomings. Despite arguments for consolidating some specialist services to promote better care, for…
The chances of a single level of government taking charge of Australia’s health system are slim.
AAP/Quentin Jones
The federal budget reignited debate over federal-state relations with a decision to cut $80 billion funding for the state responsibilities of schools and hospitals over the coming years. So how can federal-state…
Oliver Groene, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Patient safety and quality of care are priorities in health, as is learning from our mistakes when things go wrong. But little is known about what hospitals are doing to make sure the services they deliver…
With the right training and supervision, assistants could safely take on 15% of nurses’ workloads.
John Keith/Shutterstock
Employees are the public hospital system’s most valuable resource, and its biggest cost. Wages account for nearly 70% of recurrent hospital spending. To keep hospital care affordable in a time of rising…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne