NSW Health Minister says health restructure will improve local decision-making. A middle layer of bureaucracy at the NSW Health Department will be abolished under a restructure that will scrap 300 positions, and savings of $80 million directed to frontline services. ...
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Call for greater focus on women in self-harm
Women have been overlooked in suicide prevention programs, despite higher rates of attempted suicide, says advocacy group. Australian women are far more likely to attempt suicide than men but the violent methods men use to take their own lives means ...
More »Mental health nurses add to calls to dump mandatory detention
Mental health professionals describe epidemic of self-harm and suicide within detention centres. Mental health professionals have renewed their call for an end to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. Psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health nurses have united to issue a ...
More »Disability scheme by 2018 under PC plan
While it is yet to commit to the PC’s timetable for a national disability insurance scheme, the government has defended the seven year lead-in period outlined. While it is yet to commit to the PC’s timetable for a national disability ...
More »Nurses disappointed by aged care report
ANF says the PC did not offer real solutions. The final Productivity Commission report into aged care saying it fails to address quality care for elderly Australians, says the ANF. ANF federal secretary Lee Thomas said the report Caring for ...
More »Real stories, real people
Health workers urged to ‘do something real in indigenous health’. Nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other health practitioners are being encouraged to consider extending their careers to help provide care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders across Australia. The Minister ...
More »Indemnity insurance reprieve
Independent midwives exemption to continue until 2013. Independent privately practising midwives have been given a further 12 month extension of the professional indemnity insurance exemption. The extension was agreed upon at the Australian Health Ministers Conference held in Darwin last ...
More »Lack of collaboration stalls maternity reform
Midwives urge government to relook at legislation. The government's maternity reforms are "doomed to fail" as a result of obstetricians refusing to enter into collaborative arrangements with midwives. This is according to the Australian College of Midwives (ACM), which said ...
More »Massive rural primary care deficit is confirmed
Report findings promote need for improvements in the bush. Two new reports show people in country Australia are missing “out badly” on access to primary health services, according to the National Rural Health Alliance. Between them, they show a primary ...
More »Improving indigenous lives a challenge
Gillard admits it will be extremely difficult to close the life-expectancy gap by the target year of 2031 with current progress. Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants indigenous people to take greater responsibility for improving their own lives, after admitting the ...
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