Archived News for Health Sector Professionals

The Tasmanian State Government has announced new health infrastructure spending in the State's Budget.

Tasmanian Health Minister, Michelle O’Byrne, has announced the development of a  Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which she describes as an "ambitious and long-term approach" aimed at improving the state's economy, the workforce and the Tasmanian community.

Australia’s first Bionics Institute will be a leader in neurobionic research, with the aim of developing devices for conditions such as epilepsy.

Curtin University is leading an international collaboration with Silver Chain Hospice Care to implement a comprehensive Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) that will formally assess carers’ needs in supporting their loved ones to die in their place of choice, usually at home.

The project is a joint effort between Curtin University, Manchester University in the UK and the University of Victoria in Canada. It is part of the international collaboration on Family Caregiving Research in End of Life Care between Australia, UK and Canada. The CSNAT was developed by the UK team.

Home-based family care at end-of-life involves significant emotional, social, financial and physical costs and without significant support, potential caregivers may seek costly institutional forms of care.

Although government policies highlight that family carer support needs should be assessed and addressed, this approach is compromised by the lack of rigorously tested and comprehensive assessment tools for use by service providers, which are brief enough to be practical for application in busy clinical settings.

Professor Samar Aoun from the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute’s WA Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care said that timely response to carer needs would save money and restore dignity to end-of-life care, as palliative care is about caring for both the patient and the family carer through early identification, assessment and management of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs.

The group partnered with Silver Chain Hospice Care to trial a simple questionnaire for assessing carers’ physical, social and emotional needs throughout the process of caring.

The trial will continue for three years, with 440 carers as a study group and controls.

“We’re hoping with this tool we can demonstrate an improvement in carers’ wellbeing, bereavement outcomes and the likelihood of the patient achieving their preferred place of death,” Professor Aoun said.

The South Australian Government has announced a total of $4.7 billion in health spending in the state's 2011-12 budget, representing a four per cent, or $181 million, increase on the previous year's spending.

A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) program to place its students in the state's super clinics was announced as a finalist for the Excellence in Collaborative Workforce Initiatives Category of the Workforce Council awards.

A report released by the COAG Reform Council shows that governments have achieved mixed results in improving hospital care.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has called for the health reform agenda to focus on boosting the number of doctors and other health professionals in rural Australia, rather than adding ‘band-aid solutions’.

A new $118 million National Health Performance Authority will be created to monitor hospital performance, including error rates, following agreement between federal, state and territory health ministers in Melbourne last week.

The Queensland Government has announced a partnership between Queensland Health and the Queensland Police Service to support Cairns locals experiencing mental illness. 

South Australia has announced a $19.3 million spending package over four years to increase and support digital screening services at BreastScreen SA.

The South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, has announced the finalisation of the contract to construct, operate and maintain the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).

The National Health and Medical Research Council will conduct a scientific forum into investigating the possible effects of wind turbines on health and will hear the latest international scientific evidence and engage with stakeholders over the range of issues for which there is public concern.

The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has slammed the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for its failure to satisfactorily set up and operate the national registration system for Australia’s 528,000 health practitioners, causing massive impacts across the health services sector.

A Cancer Nursing Research Unit has been launched as a collaboration between Sydney Nursing School at the University of Sydney, the Cancer Institute of New South Wales and the Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

A new Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory has been launched at the University of Sydney which will integrate basic and clinical research to develop pioneering interventions to prevent, minimise or manage injury, chronic disease and disability.

The University of New England will lead a $7 million research project on rural mental health, with funding of $4.8 million contributed by the Federal Government through the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) program.

The Collaborative Research Network for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Rural Regions will work with five partners - Universities of NSW, Sydney, Newcastle, and La Trobe, and Hunter New England Area Health Service - to expand rural health strengths, and feed into the education of health professionals and better rural mental health services.

CRN activities will build links with rural communities and health providers in NSW and Victoria, with a focus on investigating and improving mental health and wellbeing.

Studies show that people living in rural regions and remote areas tend to be in poorer health than those in urban areas. There is excessive mortality in rural areas related to mental health disorders, and differences in morbidity rates are linked to access to services and quality of life for those suffering from mental health disorders.

A new collaborative National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) research project led by Clinical Professor Lin Perry of the University of Technology Sydney has been funded to develop and test a new model of diabetes services.

Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital has opened the newly refurbished Helen Macpherson Smith Burns Unit after spending $2.6 million on the upgrade.