From 1 December, Australian women will benefit from a new and more effective screening test for cervical cancer — it’s more accurate and requires testing less often. The new human papillomavirus (HPV) test will prevent up to 30 per cent more women from developing cervical cancer because it detects HPV, an early risk indicator for cervical cancer. The current Pap test detects cervical abnormalities after they occur.
By Dr Bill Coote* , a former federal health minister advisor and former AMA secretary general, breaks down the forces reshaping general practice.
Last week, economist and serial health policy commentator Stephen Duckett told a Senate committee: “Every galah in every pet shop is talking about primary care payment redesign to reduce the emphasis on fee-for-service payment.”
Dr Ian Kamerman looks at the consequences of the increasing number of doctors, stagnant wage growth among patients, and stagnant government funding for primary health care.
More Australian patients are visiting their GP without having to pay, with the bulk billing rate for the September quarter increasing to a record 85.9 per cent.
This is the highest bulk billing rate ever achieved for a September quarter – and significantly higher than Labor’s 82.2% when they were last in Government, according to Health Minister Greg Hunt.
“We’re spending more than ever before on Medicare – with record funding increasing each and every year from $23 billion in 2017-18, to $24 billion, to $26 billion to $28 billion in 2020-21,” he said. “Spending under Labor was $19.5 […]
Australians are increasingly facing ‘diagnosis creep’, where disease definitions are widened and people are unnecessarily turned into patients, experts say.
Dr Ray Moynihan (PhD), senior research fellow at Bond University, said expanded disease definitions were often decided upon by panels muddied by conflicts of interest, and had the potential to be harmful.
The Federal Government will invest a record $24 million to support landmark research into cardiovascular disease by The George Institute for Global Health. This is National Health and Medical Research Council’s third largest grant ever provided for medical research in Australia and the largest investment in research on cardiovascular disease – a disease which many Australians do not know they have.
Hundreds of new junior doctors will experience work as a general practitioner in regional and rural Australia, thanks to the second round of the Federal Government’s Rural Junior Doctor Training Innovation Fund (RJDTIF) announced (Nov 2017).