Healthcare
From helicopter to hospital: Inside the ER in the aftermath of the Exford school bus crash
When the six most critical children pulled from the wreckage of a school bus arrived at the Royal Children’s Hospital they were quiet. And that, says the hospital’s head surgeon, was reassuring.
- by Henrietta Cook
Latest
A defibrillator saved this Wiggle’s life. Now he wants them everywhere
The revelation that he was one of only 10 per cent of people to survive a sudden cardiac arrest set Greg Page on a mission to improve the situation for the other 90 per cent.
- by Angus Thomson
Baby Maisie and her mum defy the odds
Maisie Boyle was simply meant to be born. The extraordinary journey her mother went through to get her here is proof of that.
- by Melissa Cunningham
‘It means families are kept together’: Child heart transplant service opens
Young patients from NSW previously had to be transferred to Melbourne for the life-saving operation.
- by Mary Ward
‘More acceptable now’: Medicinal cannabis use rising, passes 1 million prescriptions
Applications to use the drug are rising “exponentially” despite uncertainty among doctors over its use.
- by Stephen Brook and Najma Sambul
Opinion
Healthcare
I’m a GP and I’m sorry – but I can’t afford to bulk-bill you
GP clinics are small businesses. We want to help our patients, but altruism is not a sustainable business model. We can’t keep making a loss for bulk-billed consultations.
- by Sarah Lewis
Paramedics explore legal action after drug, alcohol tests leaked
More than 40 confidential spreadsheets containing the pre-employment drug test results of hundreds of graduate paramedics were posted on the Ambulance Victoria intranet, according to the Victorian Ambulance Union.
- by Henrietta Cook
Religious cult refuses to get lawyer over schoolgirl’s death
Elizabeth Rose Struhs’ parents allegedly gathered members of their church to pray over her body, instead of calling paramedics.
- by Cloe Read
Sydney laboratory worker swapped patient samples to ‘target and discredit’ co-worker
Dianne Reader received a lifetime ban for improperly accessing patient records and tampering with samples, leading to the misdiagnosis of at least one patient.
- by Angus Thomson
Dodgy doctors to be named and shamed, but watchdog will use new powers sparingly
New laws that give the health regulator powers to publicly name individuals being investigated over misconduct claims will only be used in “exceptional circumstances”.
- by Henrietta Cook
How smelly T-shirts and AI helped unlock secret to detecting Parkinson’s disease
An AI program developed by researchers in Sydney and Boston could help predict the disease up to 15 years before symptoms appear.
- by Angus Thomson