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Climate change report highlights Indigenous health risks

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A new report has found the health of Indigenous Australians living in coastal areas such as the Torres Strait could be at risk due to climate change.

The report commissioned by the Federal Government found climate change will elevate existing health risks for Indigenous people and create a whole new set of health problems.

They include respiratory illness and increasing incidence of heat stress and dehydration.

The loss of livelihoods and population displacement will also have a serious impact on the health and nutrition of those living in remote island communities.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong delivered the report while touring the Torres Strait.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: australians, climate change report, coastal areas, dehydration, federal government, health and nutrition, Health New, Health Nutrition, health problems, health risks, heat stress, Impact Nutrition, Indigenous Health, Indigenous People, Island Communities, livelihoods, Penny Wong, Population Displacement, Respiratory Illness, Torres Strait

Budget ‘short-sighted’ on health

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The peak body for medical practitioners has criticised the State Government’s health-focused budget, saying it does not deliver enough for patients.

The Australian Medical Association’s Victorian President, Dr Harry Hemley, says billions of dollars in extra funding for hospitals is a “good start”.

But he says the budget is short-sighted in its plans for the future.

“If we are going to keep our population growing, and look after our aged people, we need more beds,” he said.

“We need a vision for the future, and I’m afraid this budget does not deliver that.”

The State Opposition has echoed the concerns, saying the Government’s promise to build and upgrade hospitals is misleading.

The Opposition Leader, Ted Baillieu, says some of the projects have been funded outside the traditional four-year funding cycle.

“Anybody who wakes up in Bendigo and thinks this is fantastic, the Government have delivered a new hospital, they have got another thing coming to them,” he said.

“There is only $200 million of that hospital funded over the next four years. There is $277 million short in the next four years.”

The Victorian Aboriginal Controlled Health Organisation has also expressed dismay at the Government’s lack of extra funding for indigenous health.

The organisation’s chief executive officer, Jill Gallagher, says the Government should have used the budget to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancies.

“The health infrastructure dollars, the $4 billion, that is fantastic,” she said.

“We would been happy if one per cent of that had come to indigenous health infrastructure. We are really, really sad and disappointed.”

But not all reactions to Victoria’s 154th budget have been negative.

Tim Piper from the Australian Industry Group has welcomed the Government’s reductions to payroll tax and WorkCover premiums.

“We have got to be happy that the Brumby Government have been able to come through with some decent deductions,” he said.

Brian Walsh from the Master Builders Association is also pleased to see increases to the first homebuyers grant.

“The budget is one which will make builders happy, because there is work for the commercial sector as well as the residential,” he said.

The public transport users association has welcomed spending on new trams and rail infrastructure, but says the package ignores problems with bus services in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australian Industry Group, Australian Medical Association, Brian Walsh, brumby, chief executive officer, Dr Harry, Health Infrastructure, Health Organisation, Hemley, Indigenous Health, Indigenous Life, life expectancies, medical practitioners, opposition leader, Payroll Tax, Peak Body, president dr, state opposition, Ted Baillieu, Workcover Premiums

Summit to focus on fresh food in remote areas

April 21, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A summit will be held next month aimed at closing the gap in Indigenous health by improving access to fresh food in remote communities.

The chief executive of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance, John Patterson, says the primary health care sector has largely been ignored in previous government attempts to address nutrition.

He is hoping the summit in Tennant Creek will attract Aboriginal health organisations, store managers and remote community residents from the region.

“This opportunity at our summit will provide our members a forum to discuss some local community strategies which they can go about and implement rather than having some other entity or external adviser coming in and telling them what ought to be done.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Aboriginal Health, address, adviser, chief executive, Closing The Gap, community residents, Community Strategies, fresh food, gap, Health Care Sector, Health Organisations, Indigenous Health, John Patterson, Local Community, medical services, nutrition, primary health care, Services Alliance, Store Managers, summit

Young Lib expelled over Obama monkey slur

April 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Queensland’s Liberal-National Party (LNP) has expelled a young member who called US president Barack Obama a “monkey” on Twitter.

Griffith University medical student Nick Sowden stirred up a storm of controversy for his Twitter comments during Kerry O’Brien’s exclusive interview with the US president.

The 22-year-old says he is not a racist and his comments were supposed to be ironic and have been taken out of context.

“If i wanted to see a monkey on TV id [sic] watch Wildlife Rescue #justsaying #obama730,” read one comment.

Another said: “Im [sic] not sure why they paid kerry to fly to america. if they wanted an interview with a monkey surely a Ferry to Taronga would have sufficed.”

Mr Sowden’s Twitter account has now been deleted, but there are hundreds of references to the comments on the internet.

The LNP’s response was swift. President Bruce McIver says they do not want him on their team.

“No, most definitely not on our team at all,” he said.

Mr Sowden says it was a poor attempt at irony which has been blown out of proportion.

“It’s meant to be more of a joke against the Tea Party movement, the crazy right wing conservatives, Fox News type thing,” he said.

“And it’s something maybe that they would say and I think that’s where the joke is. People who don’t know me who read the retweets of it, they don’t really realise the context… have claimed me to be a racist when I’m quite clearly not.

“I hadn’t really thought much about it at the time and that’s probably where it went a bit wrong… It’s not against Barack as a person.”

Apology

Mr Sowden says he does a lot of work for Indigenous health and charities in Ghana and Fiji which shows he is not a racist person.

He says he now regrets his comments and he would apologise to Mr Obama.

“I’m sure Barack Obama has a lot worse things in his life to deal with than a tweet from someone with 200 followers on the Gold Coast, but if he has taken offence, sure, I’ll apologise,” he said.

Mr Sowden’s Facebook site contains a picture of Hitler in a parody of an Obama election poster but he says that too has been misconstrued.

“That picture of Obama was everywhere, there was all this hype which I didn’t agree with – I didn’t think it was warranted at the time – and I think that was one way of showing how the masses can be influenced like that,” he said.

“If people want to call me a Nazi then that’s obviously another ridiculous thing, I had family in a concentration camp, I had family who were migrants.”

On Facebook, Mr Sowden is a fan of pages titled ‘I hate it when I wake up in the morning and Barack Obama is President’ and ‘Obama screwed more people than Tiger Woods’.

His page includes a photo of a beaming Mr Sowden with his arm around former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson at a John Howard testimonial dinner.

Young LNP Queensland president Rod Schneider says Mr Sowden’s comments are not the views of the Young Liberals and he welcomes the LNP’s move to expel him from the party.

He says this was the latest in a “long line of indiscretions” from Mr Sowden.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: apology, Barack Obama, Bruce Mciver, facebook, Fox News, gold coast, griffith university, Indigenous Health, Lnp, Medical Student, o brien, Poor Attempt, Racist Person, Sowden, Tea Party, tweet, twitter, University Medical, Wildlife Rescue, Wing Conservatives

Could take decade to train Indigenous doctors

April 10, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The universities behind the Northern Territory’s first medical school are hoping many of its first graduates will be Indigenous and at least half will work in remote Australia.

The Indigenous Health Minister Warren Snowdon turned the first sod on the Charles Darwin University medical school, that will see $27.8 million will be spent on a building and training facilities at Royal Darwin Hospital.

The university’s vice-chancellor Barney Glover has high hopes for the first graduation ceremony in 2015.

“I hope that a majority of them are Indigenous in 2015, but it’s a bit early to tell,” Prof Glover said.

Flinders University will run the program and its vice-chancellor, Michael Barber says $3.5 million in Commonwealth money will be used to attract Indigenous graduates from other fields.

“We don’t want to take away every Indigenous teacher, healthcare worker, even Indigenous bureaucrats,” Prof Barber said.

Prof Barber says it could take a decade to train substantial numbers of home grown Indigenous doctors.

He says Indigenous students now entering year nine have to make the important decisions that will lead to a career as a doctor.

“Don’t drop mathematics,” Prof Barber said.

“And you may wonder about why you need mathematics to get into medicine other than racking up your bill at the end, but it’s an enabling subject.

“So those decisions, convincing students out there that there is more out there to aspire to than maybe they should have that will take us probably a decade to bring up.”

Construction is due to start next week.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, bureaucrats, Career As A Doctor, charles darwin, charles darwin university, Commonwealth Money, convincing students, darwin, Doctor Don, doctors-and-medical-professionals, First Medical, Graduation Ceremony, Health, Health Minister, Healthcare Worker, high hopes, important decisions, Indigenous Health, Indigenous Students, Michael Barber, nt, snowdon, Substantial Numbers, university medical school, vice chancellor

Foundation best placed to offer eye clinic: Snowdon

April 9, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Federal Government has defended a decision to rely on a charity to provide millions of dollars to set up an eye health clinic in Alice Springs.

The Fred Hollows Foundation has pledged $3 million to construct the clinic in the Alice Springs Hospital.

The Minister for Indigenous Health, Warren Snowdon, says the foundation is best placed to provide the service.

“We’ve got to have involved, interested partners who engage in improving not only the primary healthcare of Aboriginal communities,” he said.

The clinic would provide services for all people in central Australia and will target Indigenous communities where cataracts cause more than 30 per cent of blindness.

Mr Snowdon says the emergency department (ED) must be relocated before the eye clinic can be built.

“The hospital has got to manage all its patients and … the demand is certainly here for us to have a dedicated eye clinic,” he said.

“The money is now going to be made available for a dedicated eye clinic, it will be developed in conjunction with and as a result of directly the investment of the funds to build the new emergency department.”

The hospital’s general manager Vicki Taylor says it is estimated that the new emergency department will take about 18 months to complete.

“What we’re planning is that the ED will start around about October and that’s around 18 months and at the same time we’ll start planning the day procedure unit and the stand-alone eye clinic. Those sorts of facilities I think are very good for any opthamologist who’s seeking an experience outside capital cities,” she said.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: aboriginal communities, Alice Springs, blindness, capital cities, cataracts, central Australia, emergency department, Eye Clinic, Eye Health, federal government, Fred Hollows Foundation, Health Clinic, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Health, interested partners, Opthamologist, primary healthcare, snowdon, sorts, Vicki Taylor

Diabetes funding ‘long overdue’

April 8, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality has welcomed the Rudd Government’s $436 million diabetes package.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says Indigenous people are three times more likely to acquire diabetes than the rest of the population.

Campaign co-chairman Tom Calma says there have been other initiatives for Indigenous health in the past, but it is about time something was done about chronic disease including diabetes.

“It’s long overdue, so this initiative is really building on what’s happened in the past but to make a difference,” he said.

“We need to really invest significantly into chronic disease areas such as diabetes and just by maintaining the status quo is not going to make a difference.

“So it’s down to looking at preventative health, primary health care [and] access to some secondary health care like dialysis machines.”

But the Rural Doctors Association of Australia says diabetes services may actually become worse under the plan.

The Government plans to give GPs about $1,200 a year for each diabetes sufferer they manage.

The association’s president, Nola Maxfield, says the cap may not be high enough to provide adequate care for some diabetes sufferers.

Dr Maxfield says the Government has developed the policy without consulting doctors groups.

“It may well provide worse care for people with diabetes,” she said.

“The Government should actually sit down with the GP groups make sure they develop appropriate policy.”

A spokeswoman for the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, says a doctor can apply to a contingency fund if a patient requires more than $1,200 in treatment a year.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Adequate Care, Australian Institute Of Health, Australian Institute Of Health And Welfare, Chairman Tom, Contingency Fund, Diabetes Services, Diabetes Sufferers, Dialysis Machines, Disease Areas, Gap Campaign, Indigenous Health, institute of health, maxfield, nicola roxon, Nola, Population Campaign, preventative health, primary health care, Rural Doctors Association, Secondary Health Care

New facility to bolster Indigenous health efforts

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Minister for Rural and Indigenous Health says a new facility in Alice Springs will help reduce the rate of chronic illness in Aboriginal communities.

Flinders University and the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute are sharing the W and E Rubuntja Research and Medical Education building at the Alice Springs Hospital.

The building will house Flinders’ new rural clinical school and Baker’s research into Aboriginal health problems.

Minister Warren Snowdon says it will provide a base for efforts to tackle some of the chronic diseases affecting Aboriginal health.

“Here in central Australia we know the importance of research into cardiovascular disease, diabetes, renal failure,” he said.

“These are the sorts of things that Baker’s crucially engaged with and if we want to improve the outcomes, the health outcomes, we’ve got to be able to enable people to manage the health of their patients better.”

Mr Snowdon says students will gain remote practice experience and there will also be benefits for doctors and nurses working in central Australia.

“As a result of them being here, and as a result of Flinders being here, I think we’re going to attract professionals to come here who might not otherwise have come,” he said.

“I think they’ll be attracted to coming to work at the hospital, for example, because they can see an opportunity to research at the same time as they’re working.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Aboriginal, aboriginal communities, Aboriginal Health, Alice Springs, alice-springs-0870, Australia, cardiovascular disease, central Australia, chronic diseases, Chronic Illness, community-and-society, Diabetes Institute, disease diabetes, doctors and nurses, Health, Health Efforts, health outcomes, health problems, healthcare facilities, indigenous, Indigenous Health, Medical Education Building, medical research, nt, Practice Experience, Renal Failure, Rural Clinical School, snowdon, sorts

Day focuses on closing Indigenous health gap

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

One of the leaders of the campaign to ‘Close the Gap’ on Indigenous disadvantage says progress has been made over the past few years.

More than 30,000 people are expected to take part in the fourth annual national Close the Gap Day, focusing on improving health outcomes for Indigenous people.

Campaign co-chairman Tom Calma acknowledges there have been funding boosts to Indigenous health in recent years, but says more is needed.

“We’re all starting to face in the right direction and starting to walk in the right direction,” he said.

“More and more people are understanding that it is unacceptable that in a developed country like Australia we have Third World health outcomes.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 000 People, albany-6330, Australia, boosts, broome-6725, bunbury-6230, Calma, Chairman Tom, co chairman, community-and-society, denmark-6333, developed country, esperance-6450, gap, geraldton-6530, Health, Health Gap, health outcomes, Improving Health, indigenous, Indigenous Health, Indigenous People, kalgoorlie-6430, karratha-6714, right direction, Third World, wa, World Health

‘Deepening concerns’ over health reform

March 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Northern Territory Chief Minister says his concerns have deepened over the Prime Minister’s plan to take over more responsibility for health funding.

Paul Henderson says he did not hear today’s health debate between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.

But the Chief Minister says after talking to doctors, nurses and Indigenous health groups, he supports the principle of the plan but is now more concerned about the funding details.

“They, like me, are concerned to see that our unique disadvantage here in the Northern Territory is catered for in the new funding arrangements,” he said.

“Certainly I won’t be signing up to any agreement that doesn’t detail specifically about how that disadvantage is going to be funded into the future.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, darwin-0800, doctors, federal-state-issues, Health Debate, health groups, health policy, Health Reform, Indigenous Health, Kevin Rudd, Northern Territory Chief Minister, nt, Nurses, opposition leader, Paul Henderson, Prime Minister, principle, Tony Abbott

Snowdon moots cross-border hospital network

March 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Federal Indigenous Health Minister says a central Australian hospital network crossing the borders of South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia could be possible under the Rudd Government’s national health reforms.

Warren Snowdon says a cross-border network would be much better for patients and improve health services, but says any decision needs to be discussed with state and territory health ministers.

“I think it’s a good thing to be talking about – the prospect of moving into an area where state and territory boundaries are not inhibitive to the provision of services, and that’s one possible way of doing it,” he said.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, Border Network, borders, cross-border, federal government, government-and-politics, Health, Health Minister, health ministers, Health Reforms, Health Services, healthcare facilities, Indigenous Health, National Health, Network Health, Northern Territory, nt, Provision Of Services, Sa, snowdon, South Australia, Territory Boundaries, wa, Western Australia

Snowdon moots cross-border hospital network

March 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Warren Snowdon says a cross-border network would be much better for patients and improve health services, but says any decision needs to be discussed with state and territory health ministers.

Increase in Indigenous babies with low birth weight

March 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The number of Indigenous babies with a low birth weight is increasing according to a new report from the National Indigenous Health Equality Council.

The report says Indigenous child mortality rates have dropped significantly, although Aboriginal babies are still three times more likely to die than non-Indigenous infants.

Aboriginal children under one year of age are also six times more likely to die from ill-defined conditions, including sudden infant death syndrome.

Indigenous children up to the age of four are three times more likely to die from injury or poisoining.

The rate of low birth weight babies born to Aboriginal mothers increased by 16 per cent between 1991 and 2005.

The federal Indigenous Health Minister, Warren Snowdon, says the infant mortality rate has nearly halved in that time but more work needs to be done to reduce smoking and improve the nutrition of pregnant Indigenous women.

“There are concerns about low birth weight,” Mr Snowdon said.

“It appears there may be an increase in low birth weight children that leads to a discussion about what we need to do to get pregnant mums to take care of themselves to make sure they’re not smoking or drinking, that they’ve got proper nutrition.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Aboriginal Children, babies, Child Mortality Rates, Equality Council, Health Minister, Indigenous Children, Indigenous Health, Indigenous Women, Infant Death Syndrome, infant mortality rate, leads, low birth weight, mums, Pregnant women, Proper Nutrition, six times, snowdon, Sudden Infant Death, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, three times

Climate change report highlights Indigenous health risks

Budget ‘short-sighted’ on health

Summit to focus on fresh food in remote areas

Young Lib expelled over Obama monkey slur

Could take decade to train Indigenous doctors

Foundation best placed to offer eye clinic: Snowdon

Diabetes funding ‘long overdue’

New facility to bolster Indigenous health efforts

Day focuses on closing Indigenous health gap

‘Deepening concerns’ over health reform

Snowdon moots cross-border hospital network

Snowdon moots cross-border hospital network

Increase in Indigenous babies with low birth weight

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