Melissa Sweet
Crikey.com.au
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Past articles by Melissa:
Are co-payments dead? Or is that the sound of Medicare’s last gasps?
Dr Tim Woodruff, vice president of the Doctors Reform Society, writes: The GP co-payment is dead. So said the Prime Minister as he made his third retraction on the issue six weeks ago. However, co-payments are far from â��dead, buried and crematedâ�� â�� and analyses of recent policy announcements suggests we are heading ever faster [...] → Read More
Thirteen-year-old Imogen Senior takes it up to the PM: “It is your government that is doing this to human beings”
Thirteen-year-old Imogen Senior was in the car with her dad – known to Croakey readers as Dr Tim Senior, a GP and Wonky Health columnist - when they heard Julian Burnside talking on the radio about children so desperate that they had attempted suicide while in asylum detention. Yesterday, Imogen’s father discovered that she had written to the [...] → Read More
Calling health professionals to stand up on May 1, and join the “Selfish Rabble”
Widespread anger and concern about the threatened closure of remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia have galvanised a national movement of opposition, as has been seen in a series of marches and protests around the country. As a number of Croakey articles have shown, there are profound concerns about the potentially damaging health impacts of the [...] → Read More
What are the health issues at stake when #NSWvotes? –
NSW voters are expected to return Bruce Bairdâ��s Coalition Government this weekend (see reports at The Conversation and The Guardian), but the results in the Upper House are less certain, as former MP Rob Oakeshott pointed out at Croakey earlier this week. What are the health issues and concerns at play? Croakey contributors give their [...] → Read More
Rob Oakeshott on #NSWVotes: We need another way –
Croakey is running a mini-series on health and the NSW election, but this election analysis by a former NSW MP, Rob Oakeshott, is a sobering reminder that any considerations of health and health policy must take account of the wider political context…. *** Rob Oakeshott writes: Nothing matters in this NSW election. As soon as [...] → Read More
Wonky Health goes out with a bang. And an investigation of Evidence-Based Voting –
It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that the state of Australian politics is deeply unsatisfying for those who care about evidence, outcomes and fairness. Perhaps it is time for a novel concept, Evidence-Based Voting? In the final instalment of his crowd-funded Wonky Health column, Dr Tim Senior investigates what difference it might make if [...] → Read More
Doctors in distress: join the #dochealth conversation on Twitter –
Enormous interest was generated by a recent Croakey article urging medicine to confront â��the dark sideâ�� of its institutional culture in the wake of the recent deaths of four junior doctors. The article was by Dr Kimberley Ivory, Senior Lecturer, Population Medicine and Sub-Dean of Student Support in the Sydney Medical School at the University [...] → Read More
A call for medicine to stop devouring its young –
The recent deaths of four junior doctors are an urgent reminder that medicine needs to confront â��the dark sideâ�� of its institutional culture, says Dr Kimberley Ivory, Senior Lecturer, Population Medicine and Sub-Dean of Student Support in the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney. *** Kimberley Ivory writes: Media reports have highlighted the recent sudden [...] → Read More
A refresher course: why health reform is needed (attention: Minister Ley) –
We know, thanks to Twitter, that our new Health Minister Sussan Ley has been consulting with some medical groups as part of her commitment to â��undertake wide ranging consultationâ��. But is she also hearing from some of the other parties with relevant expertise â�� like consumer and community representatives, health policy and public health experts, [...] → Read More
Queensland policies on mental health: doing harm & breaching the law? –
The use of ‘locked wards’ in acute mental health services is not backed by evidence and is associated with greater risk of patient self-harm and increased violence and aggression, according to a new analysis by UTS researcher Jon Wardle. Wardle suggests that Queensland Government support for locked wards policies may be in breach of the [...] → Read More
Wonky Health has found new jobs for Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and some of their Ministerial colleagues –
Inspired public health leadership is hardly the hallmark of the Abbott Government. But if the Government wanted a â��complete health makeoverâ�� (and even some of its own MPs seem to favour this), then Dr Tim Senior has some ideas for a political revolution â�� to be lead by a Prime Minister for Health. His latest [...] → Read More
Concern over Medicare changes that will restrict patients’ access to Aboriginal Health Workers –
While the Federal Governmentâ��s determination to introduce a copayment for general practice consultations has been dominating headlines, a recent change to the Medicare Benefits Schedule is causing great concern for services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Louise Lyons, Acting CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), says the change… → Read More