Baby Boomer Ageing Means Higher Demand For Hospital Beds
According to a new study published in the Australian Health Review, the public hospital system will be put under increasing pressure as the baby boomer generation ages. The study was undertaken by Associate Professor Deborah Schofield and Mr Arul Earnest from the University of Sydney's Northern Rivers Department of Rural Health. Associate Professor Schofield said: "Over the next 45 years the Australian population will age rapidly as the baby boomer cohort moves into retirement and then old age and this will increase the demand for hospital care.”

Streaming “Fast Track” Ed Patients Can Improve Ed Management
Streaming fast track patients in emergency departments can reduce waiting times and length of stay for less clinically urgent patients without increasing waiting times for more serious patients and should be considered by all busy emergency departments, according to a study published in the latest edition of the Australian Health Review. During a 12 week trial conducted in a tertiary adult teaching hospital in WA, patients with minor illnesses or injuries who were likely to be discharged were identified at triage and assessed and treated in a separate fast track area by ED medical and nursing staff rostered to work exclusively in the area. As a result of this process there was an 18% reduction in the average length of stay (time from triage to time of discharge) for all discharged patients compared with the same period the previous year. The average waiting time (time from triage to time seen by a doctor) for all discharged patients was reduced by 20% and there was a relative reduction of 37% in the mean number of patients who did not wait for treatment.

Abortion Complication Rates Low
A large-scale study of legal abortions in Australia has shown that complication rates are low by international standards, but could be further reduced through the implementation of quality improvement processes and new techniques. The Pregnancy Advisory Centre in South Australia has been collecting statistics on the outcomes of abortion surgery since its inception in 1993 and now has data on the outcomes of over 34 000 procedures. These data provide a measure of the safety of the procedure and indicate ways in which to reduce complication rates. This study looked at three adverse outcomes from an abortion — continuing pregnancy, uterine injuries and retained products of conception.

Our keynote speaker is 2006 Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Frazer. The program is highly professional – speakers will address the topic from a wide variety of perspectives.

This Congress is a must attend for all those working in healthcare: Senior executives, hospital managers and clinicians, community and primary health care providers, government policy makers and advisers as well as academics. Most importantly, the Congress also welcomes consumers to participate.
Register now - don’t delay – go to: www.ahacongress.com.au.

Medico-Legal Symposium
30th October - 1st November 2006, The Grace Hotel Sydney Adverse incidents, credentialing, Open Disclosure standard, tort law reforms and expert medical evidence are all important considerations for the busy healthcare professional. Attend Law & Finance's Medico-Legal Symposium to learn how to incorporate Clinical Risk Management (CRM) at your hospital, overcome privacy concerns in relation to the evolving E-Health system, medico-legal challenges in rural areas plus much much more! For this week’s special call Law & Finance on 02 9224 6000, or email registrations@lawfinance.com.au For more details click here

Firm Denies Caboolture Emergency Services Under-Staffed
The private medical firm that took over the Caboolture Hospital's emergency department this year has played down reports of unfilled vacancies. Aspen Medical signed a 12-month contract to reopen emergency services at the hospital because the Queensland Government was unable to find enough public doctors to run the department. Managing director Glenn Keys says although there are vacancies for full-time doctors, that is a normal situation in any hospital.

New Heart Facility Will Help Save Lives
WA Health Minister Jim McGinty announced a $2.8million upgrade to cardiac facilities at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The upgrade included the purchase of a new $1.3million Flat Plate Machine and construction of a new Cardiac Catheter Laboratory. The Minister said the new Flat Plate machine, the main piece of equipment used for emergency cardiac patients, could take defined images of the artery and aorta during heart attacks.

Release Of Exposure Draft Of Private Health Insurance Legislation
Health Minister Tony Abbott has released an exposure draft of the main elements of the proposed new private health insurance legislation. Mr Abbott said changes were announced in April 2006, including the expansion of hospital cover to treatment provided outside hospital that substituted for or prevented hospitalisation and improvements available to people to help them compare products and understand their cover. The draft legislation gives effect to these changes.

Doubts Stall Moves To Add Folic Acid To Bread
Representatives from Federal and state health, primary industries and fair trading ministries and their New Zealand counterparts have called for a review of the proposal for mandatory fortification of bread and cereals with folic acid. The move follows a report recommending the practice by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Unlike the submissions opposing fortification on the grounds of health concerns, the government group is holding out only to ensure the fortification takes place at the flour milling stage, rather than at the food processing level.

Call For Abortion Pill's Widespread Use
Caroline de Costa, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at James Cook University in Cairns, in far north Queensland, who is the only Australian doctor authorised to prescribe the controversial abortion pill RU486, has called for it to be made available in remote areas lacking safe termination services. She said none of the women she had treated since July had experienced complications.

Tests Alleviate Bird Flu Fears For Australian Wildlife
Ongoing testing across Australia's most susceptible regions have found no evidence of the new lethal strain of bird flu in wildlife. Last year, the H5N1 strain killed thousands of water fowl in China, and this year it spread from birds to humans in Indonesia. Dr John Curran from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) says continuing trapping and testing of wild birds across northern Australia has so far failed to isolate any live influenza viruses.

Blood Service Down To 36 Hours Supply
Australians are being urged to give blood, with the Red Cross Blood Service warning it is down to 36 hours' supply. Around half a million donors currently support the six million people who are hospitalised in Australia each year. But the Red Cross said demand has increased this year and Australians do not appear willing to meet those needs, with supply now at a dangerously low level. "This time last year we needed 20,000 donations each week to maintain an adequate blood supply. This year, we're needing 21,000 donations every week to meet hospital needs,'' the Blood Service's national operations manager Dr Pip Hetzel said.

Government Supports Initiatives To Reduce Trans Fats In Food
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, announced the establishment of a National Collaboration on Trans Fats that will propose initiatives aimed at reducing the amount of trans fatty acids in food sold in Australia. Mr Pyne said that the National Heart Foundation of Australia, the Dieticians Association of Australia, the Australian Food and Grocery Council and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) would lead the initiative.

Cancer Deaths 'Eliminated' By 2026
Professor John Shine, director of the Garvan Institute for Medical Research in Sydney said death from cancer - and possibly heart disease - will be a thing of the past within 20 years because of advances in genetic technology. He said he believed while people would still get cancer in 20 years time, they would not die from it. Scientists now knew it was possible to develop "smart" drugs which targeted particular disease-causing or susceptible genes and it was only a matter of time before there were drugs which could target cancer, he said.

Breast Cancer Rates On The Way Up
This year more than 13,000 Australian women and 100 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer, representing 36 each day, and the numbers are growing. It's now the case that by the time a woman reaches the age of 85, she has a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer. However, survival rates are also on the rise and the experts say early detection is the key.

With national leadership and affordable new expenditure, Australia could fix the terrible state of oral and dental health among its adults according to the National Rural Health Alliance. The NRHA’s number one priority presented to Minister Abbott last week was to improve access to dentists for rural people. “We support the plan launched this week by ACOSS which would see the Australian Government covering the minimum costs of basic dental care for adults who cannot afford private fees,” Chair of the Alliance, John Wakerman, said. The Alliance is a strong supporter of the campaign because people in rural and remote areas are among the worst-served and worst-affected with regard to oral and dental health.

States Avoiding National Foreign Doctors Test: Expert
New research claims state health authorities are reluctant to introduce a written test for overseas-trained doctors because they are afraid of missing out on new medical staff. A study by demographer Bob Birrell, in conjunction with Australian Doctors Trained Overseas Association president Andrew Schwartz, has found the credentials of foreign doctors are checked thoroughly, following the Jayant Patel scandal in the Queensland town of Bundaberg; but plans for a national test have fallen away because states do not want to lose their recruits. More than 3000 overseas doctors are granted work visas each year, but many are not required to have their knowledge and clinical skills formally assessed because of pressure to fill vacancies in many hospitals and country towns. The number of unchecked doctors from non-Western countries is likely to rise because shortages are increasing dependence on foreign recruits.

Australians Perfect Cancer Gene Screening
Australian doctors have released details about a procedure they have perfected that allows them to screen embryos for the breast cancer gene. Dr Stephen McCarthur from Sydney IVF says it is an option open to those women who have a strong family history of breast cancer. He says having the gene mutation means women have an 80% risk of the disease. Dr McCarthur says the procedure allows women to have children who will not develop the disease.

NASA Machine Could Treat Osteoporosis
A device that will be used by astronauts to fight the massive bone loss that occurs in space could be used to treat osteoporosis patients. The Juvent 1000 machine has been selected by NASA for its astronauts to use on the international space station next year. Experts believe the non-invasive and drug-free device could help in the fight against osteoporosis. Australian orthopaedic expert, associate professor John Hart, said the first Australian study was being planned in Melbourne's Alfred hospital trauma unit to assess the benefits of the machine on patients. "The ultimate aim would be to prevent the bone loss that occurs in the multiply injured patients when they're resting in bed getting over their injuries,'' he said. "If the condition can be reversed or even improved when they're in bed, that would be very beneficial.''

Gene 'Affects Pain Tolerance'
Researchers in the US have found a gene that appears to affect how people feel discomfort. Tests in rats showed that blocking increased activity of the gene after nerve injury or inflammation could prevent the development of chronic pain, a finding that points to possible ways to develop new pain drugs. Studies in volunteers showed that about a quarter of them had the genetic variant that protects them from pain somewhat, and 3% carried two mutated copies that made them exceptionally insensitive to pain, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.

Mobile Phone Use Linked To Sperm Deaths
Men who use mobile phones for hours a day may be seriously endangering their fertility, new research has revealed. The US research, led by Ashok Agarwal from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, involved 361 men whose sperm was being analysed before fertility treatment. The research team found that those who talked on their phone for more than four hours a day produced 40% less sperm - and a poorer quality - than men who never used a mobile phone at all. But an Australian fertility expert has cautioned the findings, saying similar research undertaken does not support the results.

Sun Brings Relief For Asthma Sufferers
Sunshine could be a saviour for asthma sufferers, according to world-first Australian research suggesting that rays can relieve symptoms. Scientists from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research used mice to test the effects of ultraviolet light on the development of asthma-type signs like inflamed airways and lungs. Preliminary results show that if the animals had a 15-30 minute dose of light before being exposed to a common allergen their chance of developing symptoms was "significantly reduced". Research leader professor Prue Hart said UV exposure produces a cell type in a mouse that, when transferred into other mice, suppresses the immune reactions and halts symptoms.