Cancer Council NSW tips for a healthier Christmas

While many of us are happy to indulge over Christmas, the extra girth gained seems less appealing once the New Year rolls around.

Weight gain over the festive season is a major contributor to excess yearly weight gain, especially for people who are already carrying more weight than they would like.

But rather than fearing the fare on offer, a few simple considerations when preparing food for Christmas can keep it fun and fulfilling, and healthy too

The Cancer Council suggest these tips to help keep the extra kilos at bay which not only includes increasing fruit and vegetable but has cancer prevention benefits too.

                                                                Source: pixabay

Contemplating the last Christmas together

Most Australians are looking forward to Christmas, to catching up with family, sharing a meal and family memories, and then relaxing over summer. However, around 200,000 Australian families will be affected by death and dying this Christmas.Yet many of us are unable to talk about what is happening and may avoid the topic of dying, which can leave families feeling isolated and unsupported.

Read more here on CareSearch to discover suggestions that have been made to help people facing bereavement at Christmas.

                                                                                                   Source: Caresearch

Guidelines for Guidelines

The NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) recently launched 'Guidelines for Guidelines, providing guideline developers with practical advice on how to meet the 2016 NHMRC Guideline Standards.

It is an online resource comprised of a collection of peer reviewed modules that form a handbook that covers every aspect of the planning, development, review, implementation and updating of guidelines.

Public feedback is encouraged at consultations.nhmrc.gov.au.

Read more about the Guidelines here.

                                                                                              image credit: NHMRC

BHI Healthcare Quarterly

BHI (Bureau of Health Information) has released its latest Healthcare Quarterly report, for July to September 2018, featuring measures of activity and performance in public hospitals and ambulance services in NSW.

Presentations to emergency departments were down 3.2% on the same quarter in 2017 and overall, timeliness of care in NSW emergency departments improved when compared with the same period last year.

Read the full report here or watch the video from the BHI website:

Australia’s international health performance is in the spotlight

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has built a tool that can be used to compare Australian data on health and healthcare with comparable international data.

International health data comparisons 2018, gives a new way of comparing Australia’s performance on variety of health-related measures using the data from 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries.

The tool delivers users with interactive data visualisations to create a comparison of key health indicators including life expectancy, health risk influences and causes of death. It also gives an understanding of how Australia’s healthcare system lines up, including data on our pharmaceutical market, health insurance coverage, and elective surgery waiting times.

The data shows that Australia performs well across most of the indicators.

To read more and gain access to the new data tool go to the AIHW website.

Great books about living with mental illness

Books that contain characters we relate to can provide a way to transcribe the messiness in our minds and understand other people's emotions.

Mental illness can sometimes make it challenging to find the concentration required to read, but these nine books are worth the effort, as recommended by SANE Australia.

Check out the books here. 

                                                      Source: SANE Australia

Looking for research information on the treatment of chronic respiratory conditions in Australia? This report might help.

Utilising PBS and MBS data to report on the treatment and management of chronic respiratory conditions 2016–17.

The above report investigates the use of the Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) claims data to respond to vital research questions for reporting on the treatment and management of chronic respiratory conditions in Australia. Including high level analysis on medications dispensed for the treatment and management of chronic respiratory conditions in 2016–17, as well as dispensing patterns.


To download the report and read more go to the AIHW website

AN ONGOING STRUGGLE: THE OBESITY DILEMMA

Australian waistlines are continuing to grow. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s latest report on the subject, published in June 2018, almost two in three adults were overweight or obese in 2014-15.

Twenty-eight per cent were obese in 2014-15, an increase from 19% in 1995. And 26% of children and adolescents were overweight or obese in 2014-15.

Pharmacists and other health professionals are in an excellent position to help people who are overweight make some lifestyle improvements.

It’s now well known that loss of just five to 10% of body weight can have significant health benefits, including for the cardiovascular system, an impact on diabetes, kidney disease and knee problems related to weight.

Read the full report here at ajp.com.au

Vaccine-preventable diseases

A new update has been released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Globally, vaccination is a successful and cost-effective health intervention. Funding for vaccination against 17 diseases to eligible people has been provided by the Australian Government through the National Immunisation Program.

This release is a series of downloadable fact sheets providing information about these diseases and how they affect the Australian population. Information includes statistics on cases reported, patients hospitalised and morbidity.

Read the release on the AIHW website.

8 hours sleep per day : Do we really need it?

Most of us try to live by the rule of eight hours of work, eight hours of play, eight hours of sleep. Tradition has long told us we need to have eight hours of sleep per day. Some profess that they need more, while others say they can function fine on four or five.

Is the human brain wired to need eight hours, or is everyone different? The Conversation asked five experts if everyone needs eight hours of sleep per day.

5/5 Experts say NO

Read their detailed responses here.

World AIDS Day Australia 2018

It's World AIDS Day this Saturday 1 December. The aim is to raise awareness across the community about the continuing issues around HIV and AIDS. It is a day for people to show their support for people living with HIV and to remember people who have died.

The first World Aids Day was held in 1988 and is observed by millions of people around the world. It is estimated that about 27,600 people live with HIV.

Find out more here.

What is “toxic” about anger? | OUPblog

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression chosen to reflect the passing year in language. Every year, the Oxford Dictionaries team debates over a selection of candidates for Word of the Year, choosing the one that best captures the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year. The 2018 Oxford Word of the Year is: toxic.

It is the sheer scope of the word’s application that has made toxic the stand-out choice for the Oxford Word of the Year. Here, psychology professor Ephrem Fernandez reflects on what makes anger a toxic emotion.

                                                                       source: OUPBlog

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations aged 50 and over

This report provides estimated numbers and demographic characteristics of the Stolen Generations survivors aged 50 and over in 2014–15. It presents data on a range of health and socioeconomic outcomes, and analysis of differences with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comparison group to examine the effects of removal from families. The findings will help to inform the needs for health, disability and housing services for the older Stolen Generations members.

Download the report here.

                                                                                                                      Source: AIHW

Women Sleeping Rough in Australia's Cities : What are the Health and Social Costs?

Researchers from the Centre for Social Impact at The University of Western Australia (CSI UWA) in conjunction with the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) have analysed the data of the health and social outcomes of women sleeping rough in Australia. The team brought together 853 interviews with women around Australia, using the Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritisation Decision Tool. This is a sample of over 8,000 interviews, collected in 2010-2017.

There is very little rough sleeping literature and what is out there has focused primarily on men. This is one of the largest studies of women sleeping rough in Australian cities. From this sample, we are seeing that women who sleep rough have poorer health and social outcomes, when compared to women who do not sleep rough, and different outcomes again to males in the same situation.

Download a copy here.

                                                                                                 Source: Analysis & Policy Observatory

Improving outcomes for patients, focusing on efficiency - All.Can Survey

Australians who have been diagnosed and treated for cancer have the opportunity to share their experiences with the world as part of a global research project launched by All.Can, an initiative committed to improving cancer care.

The All.Can initiative began in Australia in late 2017, and was officially launched on World Cancer Day (4 February) 2018. The patient-focused initiative aims to gather insights from the cancer community and sharpen the focus on delivery of care truly of value to patients.

Read more about All.Can in Australia here or click here to take the anonymous survey and share your experience.

                                                                       Source: All.Can

2018 World Wide Pressure Injury Prevention Day

The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) announced that World Wide Pressure Injury Prevention Day is to be celebrated on Thursday, November 15, 2018. The objective of World Wide Pressure Injury Prevention Day is to increase national awareness for pressure injury prevention and to educate the public on this topic.

NPUAP has developed a comprehensive media materials package suitable for all healthcare settings and organisations which are available here.

For 2018 Stop Pressure Injury Day, the NPUAP, EPUAP and the Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance (PPPIA) are promoting the International Pressure Injury Guideline. The guideline is available from the New Zealand Wound Care Society website. The New Zealand Wound Care Society has developed a website of useful resources and links, some in a number of languages.

To fund or not to fund that was the question.

So, ok the decision to cut funding for the Foodbank Charity, did not last long due to the outcries of many. The decision to reinstate the funding was welcomed whole heartedly by Foodbank and everyone in favour of a fair-go for struggling Australians. But what is astounding is that the importance of nutrition in maintaining the health and well-being of the population is not more widely understood, especially with decision makers.

A balanced diet is essential for good health and well-being. Good food provides bodies with the energy, protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals to function, live, and grow properly. We all need a variety of different foods to get sufficient amounts of nutrients for good health. Having a healthy diet can be one of the great cultural pleasures in life. An unhealthy diet increases the risk of many diet-related diseases.

Read more about Nutrition & Health here on the NHMRC website.

Government agrees to extend My Health Record opt-out deadline again

The federal government has negotiated with One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson to agree to a three-month extension to the opt-out period for the My Health Record, having refused to accept a 12-month delay put forward by Labor.

Consumers will now have until January 31, 2019, to opt out.

Read more here at PULSE+IT

Movember

Globally, every minute, a man dies by suicide.

In Australia, 75% of suicides are men. What can we do?

TALK.
ASK.
LISTEN.
ENCOURAGE ACTION.
CHECK IN.

As a leading global funder of prostate cancer research, the Movember Foundation has invested more than $92 million in Australia across biomedical research, treatment quality and supporting men and their families better manage the side effects of treatment since 2004.

Read more here. 

Scientists say their results are ‘significant’, what does it mean?

I think we can all agree that scientific papers aren’t exactly page turners. Written by scientists, for scientists, they are often in a language that only vaguely resembles English. Perhaps one of the most daunting aspects of a scientific paper is the stats section. But what do statistics really mean in the real world? An example from leukemia research helps to break it down.

Researchers should always look for the magic number which indicates statistically significant differences in their experiments: most people agree this number to be 0.05 (this may be written in a paper written as p < 0.05).

Read more here at "The Conversation".

Source: measuringu.com

Antibiotic Awareness Week 12 – 18 November 2018

World Antibiotic Awareness Week is held annually in November. The aim is to draw attention to the role of effective and responsible use of antibiotics in preventing and containing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antibiotic Awareness Week is an initiative to highlight the appropriate use of antibiotics to add to the avoidance of further emergence and spread of AMR. AMR is already impacting on the care of patients and current developments indicate this will have an increasing affect over time.

Why is antibiotic resistance such a major concern?

Antibiotics are lifesaving medications, but only if they work against the organism causing infection. If we don’t address the issue of antibiotic resistance there may be infections for which there are no available treatments. Antibiotic resistance may impact on life saving health care, such as cancer treatments or organ transplants, as antibiotics will not be effective to prevent infections that are commonly associated with these procedures.

WHO described antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest threats to human and animal health, including food and agriculture.

Read more here

Source: Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare

Opioid harm in Australia: and comparisons between Australia and Canada

Opioid use and its associated harms is an issue of great public health interest, both within Australia and internationally. A report released today by The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that opioid harms are an issue in both Australia and Canada. Rates of opioid deaths and opioid poisoning hospitalisations in Australia increased in the last 10 years. In 2016, pharmaceutical opioids were involved in more opioid deaths and opioid poisoning hospitalisations than heroin.

Read the full report here

There’s Hope in Our Mortality

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. So when we tell you that several TEDMED 2018 Speakers have taught us how to find hope in places such as serious illness and end of life, you might be surprised. 

 Whether it be through sound, support, or a little bit of humor, each of these Speakers has a unique approach to what it means to take on the challenges that life brings us with hope, and their insight can help us learn to become more comfortable and capable of having those difficult, yet critical, conversations about what it means to truly live.

Read the complete Blogpost by Lindsey Walker here.

TEDMED Blog – TEDMED is a global community dedicated to unlocking imagination in service of health and medicine.

Help people with mental health conditions quit smoking

Australians with mental health conditions are more than twice as likely to smoke as the general population. About twenty-two percent of people with a mental health condition smoke daily compared to a national rate under thirteen percent. The more severe your illness, the more likely you are to smoke. About 60 - 70% of people with psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia smoke.

Some health professionals might have put smoking in the "too hard basket" for patients with complex or acute health needs. But, there is evidence to show that people with mental illnesses want to stop smoking, that they are capable of stopping, and that smoking causes stress rather than relieving it. Research also shows quitting does not aggravate mental health, but can improve it.

People with mental health conditions want improved physical health and to address risk factors. However, mental health providers often don’t see this as their job while they concentrate on improving a patient’s mental health.

Read more here

                                                                   Source : The Conversation

Hospital loses Intensive Care Unit accreditation

Sydney's Westmead Hospital has lost its ICU training accreditation following a series of serious bullying and harassment allegations.

The College of Intensive Care has stripped the hospital of its ICU training credentials in September following complaints against senior medical staff.

The State Government has demanded a report into the allegations within a month.

Losing training positions could impact patient care and increase workloads for existing ICU doctors.

Read more here

Source: Healthcareer

The best evidence available should be accessible to all

The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), based in South Australia, says the best evidence available should be accessible to all and is key to tackling poor practice that can do more harm than good.

JBI is an international not-for-profit health research institute of the University of Adelaide that collaborates with more than 70 partnering organisations across the world. The institute fosters long-term sustainable change in health practices by training healthcare professionals to deliver evidence based healthcare and providing the best available evidence to inform clinical decision making.

Read more here on the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal website.

Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder — one of several types of personality disorders — is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.


People with narcissistic personality disorder may not want to think that anything could be wrong, so they may be unlikely to seek treatment. If they do seek treatment, it's more likely to be for symptoms of depression, drug or alcohol use, or another mental health problem. But perceived insults to self-esteem may make it difficult to accept and follow through with treatment.


Read more here about Narcissistic Personality Disorder on the Mayo Clinic website.

                                                                 Image credit: pixababy

Collaborative practice improves the quality of your support

For people experiencing sexual assault, domestic or family violence, there may be a range of services and organisations they are in contact with for support. Organisations can respond better if they collaborate with other agencies that may be supporting the person they are working with. Working together in this way means consistent advice can be given to clients across different services. Collaborative practice also reduces the risk of re-traumatisation to clients by minimising the need to tell their story again to other workers.

Research into inter-agency collaboration may assist your organisation in setting up collaborative practices.

Read more at 1800RESPECT here and about inter-agency collaboration here on the Australian Institute of Family Studies website.

Living with multiple medicines: Patients and health professionals share their experience

The Living with multiple medicines project is about people’s experiences of taking five or more medicines by seeing and hearing them share their personal stories on film.

Our researcher travelled around Australia to talk to 34 people (including four doctors and one pharmacist) in their own homes or workplaces. Find out what people said about:

• how they feel about taking multiple medicines

• communicating with others

• problems they have with their medicines and how these are resolved.

Read the full report here on NPS Medicine Wise

                                                       Image source: www.nps.org.au

Australia is responding to the complex challenge of overdiagnosis

Overdiagnosis is now a health challenge recognised across many nations. Debates about its definition continue, but in short, overdiagnosis happens when health systems routinely diagnose people in ways that do not benefit them or that even do more harm than good. Overdiagnosis is an unwarranted diagnosis, leading to harm from unnecessary labels and treatments and to the waste of health care resources that could be better spent dealing with genuine needs. To manage overdiagnosis and the sustainability of the health system more broadly, reversing the harm of too much medicine is becoming a health care priority, demanding effective responses in policy and practice. In Australia, a new alliance is developing a national plan to deal with this problem.

Read the full report here on MJA.

October is Mental Health Month

Reliable data is essential to understanding how people experience their mental health, and how our mental health and social support systems respond to them. This is the evidence that can make the case for change, and reveal whether the reforms we make are effective in improving people’s lives.
Under the Mental Health Commission Act, the Commission is required to monitor and report on the implementation of Living Well: A Strategic Plan for Mental Health in NSW 2014-2024, and also to review and evaluate services and programs provided to people who have a mental illness. Read more here at the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Also read more about Mental Health Month at WayAhead. #sharethejourney2018

                                                      Image Credit: wayahead.org.au

Hospital privacy curtains breed bacteria

Frequently touched, but infrequently changed, privacy curtains in hospitals can become breeding grounds for resistant bacteria, according to a new study.

Without timely intervention, the curtains could pose a threat to patient safety.

The longitudinal, prospective pilot study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, tracked the contamination rate of 10 freshly laundered privacy curtains in the Regional Burns/Plastics Unit of the Health Services Center in Winnipeg, Canada.

Read the article here at Australian Hospital + Health Care Bulletin 

                                               Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Kobus

Caring for dying patients in an acute hospital setting, three tips for getting it right

Caring for dying patients in an acute hospital setting, three tips for getting it right: Acute hospitals are perfect for emergencies, surgeries, fixing, curing and treating patients, making them well again and sending them home. When it comes to dying in an acute hospital, sometimes we need some help and guidance to know how to care for these vulnerable patients and what is needed at this point of life. Providing care and dignity are basic human values and should be given to patients regardless of the situation.

Read the article here at Care Search

Vulnerable older people at risk at end of life

Vulnerable older people at risk at end of life: The escalating, and often hidden, problem of elder abuse is chief amongst the challenges confronting Australia’s ageing population. It is a challenge not only for older people but also for other key stakeholders including, for example, health professionals, lawyers, government, policy makers and social workers (Purser et al, 2018).

Compounding the problems are the definitional and prevalence uncertainties in this area. At what age a person becomes ‘older’ is unclear. Definitions range fifty years and over, to sixty-five years and over.

Read the article here on CareSearch

Help Us Find Solutions for Social Isolation

Social isolation is a state in which a person lacks a sense of belonging, isn’t engaging with others, and has a minimal number of social contacts and quality relationships. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation think there is much more the U.S. can learn from beyond their nation’s borders about preventing social isolation—both from countries where residents are happy and have thriving social connections, and countries that are still working to find solutions.Help Us Find Solutions for Social Isolation: Join us in searching for ideas to help tackle the growing problem of social isolation in the United States, and expand social connections which provide purpose and meaning.

Patient Safety Culture

A review published in the Australian Health Review highlighted that despite efforts to improve patient safety culture (PSC), health professional groups have different views and do not perceive their organisations to be promoting patient safety.
Although many factors affect patient safety, in the US the Institute of Medicine identified hospital organisational culture as one factor contributing to a reduction in errors. From an Australian perspective, there is a lack of recent PSC literature in acute hospital settings in Australia, which is highlighted and discussed the the review.
The full article, Health professionals’ perception of patient safety culture in acute hospitals: an integrative review can be read here.

A global study reveals 1 in 5 catheters unnecessarily painful or malfunctioning

A global study has found major problems with the manner in which short peripheral catheters are managed, with two-thirds of catheter insertions found to be placed in non-recommended sites or at risk of failure, and one in five catheters found to be unnecessarily painful or malfunctioning.

The study, led by Western Sydney University, involved hundreds of health professionals who assessed 40,620 peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) in 51 countries. The study found that thousands of catheters were placed in non-recommended sites such as the hand, wrist or antecubital veins with many devices reviewed already failing or at risk of failure.

Read the full article here by The Australian Hospital & Healthcare Bulletin.

Moving ultrasound pictures capture babies' first breaths

Watching a newborn baby take its first breath has always been a significant moment for parents and healthcare staff. Now, for the first time, doctors at the Royal Women’s Hospital have captured moving ultrasound images of the lungs of newborn babies as they take their first breaths.

The research, involving the Women’s and Monash University, signals a breakthrough in understanding how human lungs transition from the womb to the first breaths at birth.

Researchers say the new information could lead to the diagnosis of severe breathing problems in very preterm babies in the first minutes of life, instead of the current several hours, allowing for live-saving treatment.

Read the full article here in The Australian Hospital and Healthcare Bulletin

                                              Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Cari

It's National Child Protection Week - help prevent abuse and neglect

The National Association for Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) are an Australian organisation that focuses entirely on the prevention of child abuse and neglect before it starts. They promote National Child Protection Week which starts annually from Fathers' Day every year (Sunday 2nd - Saturday 8th September this year).
They say that we all have a role to play in protecting children from harm. The little things we do every day can help to create safer environments for children. For instance:

• Be kind to children and parents
• Respect young people
• Be a good role model around children
• Get involved in your local community
• Look out for signs of abuse or neglect; if you suspect something is wrong talk to an expert
• Always take reports of abuse seriously
• Avoid blame and don’t judge; instead, ask yourself what you can do to help
• Listen to the needs of children and spend time with them

National Child Protection Week is an opportunity for government, business and community to come together to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. Learn more about how to get involved here.

Today is the last day of 22q11.2 Awareness Week

22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome is a genetic syndrome. It is the result of a submicroscopic deletion on the long arm of Chromosome 22 in the “q11” region - deletion 22q11.

22q11.2 DS affects approx. 1 in 2000 - 3000 persons making it the second most prevalent genetic syndrome after Down syndrome. It is also the most common genetic syndrome associated with cleft palates and the second most common genetic syndrome associated with congenital heart defects

Read more about 22q11.2 Awareness week here and learn more about 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome here on the 22q website.

Do you know the top 10 causes of death worldwide?

According to the World Health Organisation, of the 56.9 million deaths worldwide in 2016, more than half (54%) were due to the top 10 causes. Ischaemic heart disease and stroke are the world’s biggest killers, accounting for a combined 15.2 million deaths in 2016. These diseases have remained the leading causes of death globally in the last 15 years.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease claimed 3.0 million lives in 2016, while lung cancer (along with trachea and bronchus cancers) caused 1.7 million deaths. Diabetes killed 1.6 million people in 2016, up from less than 1 million in 2000. Deaths due to dementias more than doubled between 2000 and 2016, making it the 5th leading cause of global deaths in 2016 compared to 14th in 2000.

Read the WHO article here to discover what the remaining top causes of death around the globe are.

Drought-related stress among New South Wales farmers

A recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia brings attention to drought-related stress among New South Wales farmers based on the findings from a Australian Rural Mental Health Study (ARMHS), a longitudinal cohort study (2007–2013).
The study included a subset of 664 ARMHS participants (at baseline) who identified as living or working on a farm with the main outcome measures being personal drought-related stress (PDS), community drought-related stress (CDS), and general psychological distress. Farmers in NSW experience significant stress about the effects of drought on themselves, their families, and their communities. Farmers who are younger, live and work on a farm, experience financial hardship, or are isolated are at particular risk of drought-related stress. Medical practitioners who provide assistance to farmers and farming communities can contribute to initiatives that relieve stress about drought.

Read the complete article on The Medical Journal of Australia here.

Is coconut oil "pure poison"?

A 50-minute German lecture becoming a viral hit on YouTube might sound unusual, but the title of the talk by Karin Michels, the director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg and a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, has caused a bit of a stir online.

During the lecture, titled "Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors," Michels has made herself very clear with regard to dietary recommendations, and underlined that coconut oil is not healthy.

Its superfood status had already come under scrutiny last year after the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its guidelines, which recommended that people avoid the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil.

Michels went a step further than to recommend avoiding the foodstuff, saying "coconut oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can eat."

Read the full article on Science Alert here and watch the YouTube video here

Invasive Meningococcal Disease

As August and September are peak months for invasive meningococcal disease,  GPs should be alert for meningococcal symptoms in all age groups.

There has been a significant increase in invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) caused by serogroup W (MenW) and serogroup Y in NSW since 2013.

While MenW notifications decreased in NSW following the introduction of the vaccination program in 2017, the number of cases remain high compared to the period before 2015.

Symptoms of meningococcal disease are non-specific but may include sudden onset of fever, headache, neck stiffness, joint pain, a rash of red-purple spots or bruises, dislike of bright lights, nausea and vomiting.

NSW Health is offering meningococcal ACWY vaccine (Men ACWY) to Year 10 and 11 students through schools in 2018 and to Year 10 students in 2019.

GPs can offer free Men ACWY to any 15-19 year olds who have not been vaccinated at school until 31 December 2018. Find out more information here on North Coast Primary Health Network.

For more information on meningococcal disease please visit Meningococcal disease for health professionals 

Women's Health Faces a Healthy Future

The National Health and MedicalResearch Council has begun work on a new national health strategy for women. The National Women’s Health Strategy 2020–2030 aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all women in Australia over the next decade, especially those at greatest risk of poor health.

Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said the Strategy was the first since 2010 and was expected to be completed in 2019. ‘Women experience health challenges differently to men and we need to ensure that this is reflected in our health system’, Mr Hunt said.

"Maternal and infant health, chronic disease, healthy ageing and mental illness and other conditions affecting women will be a major focus of the new National Strategy."

He said 28 new medical research projects into women's health conditions were the first commitment of the Strategy.

"The projects will zero in on significant health challenges that affect Australian women, including breast cancer, maternal health, immunisastion rates and cardiovascular disease - a leading cause of death in Australian women," Mr Hunt said.

He said that although females born in Australia in 2015 could expect to live to 84.5 years, women continued to face health challenges. 

Read more here on PS News. 

Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease, which is an acute, febrile vasculitis of childhood, can affect medium sized arteries, particularly the coronary arteries. Consequently, it is the leading cause of paediatric-acquired heart disease in developed countries, which is why it is important to have a high index of suspicion for Kawasaki disease in any child, especially with prolonged fever of unknown origin and also to refer to a paediatric facility promptly, as timely treatment reduces coronary artery damage.  Kawasaki disease is most common in children aged 6 months to 4 years and other symptoms can include strawberry tongue, skin rash and the peeling of skin on the hand and feet.

Read an article about this rare disease by Daniel Golshevsky, Michael Cheung and David Burgner on Australian Family Physician here or download the PDF here

For more information also visit The Kawasaki Disease Foundation Australia

Mapping Primary Care in Australia

Primary care policy needs an overhaul to ensure all Australians, especially the poor and the elderly, get the best possible health care, according to a new Grattan Institute report.

Australians' access to general practice varies according to their wealth. Two-thirds of patients are bulk-billed for all their visits to the GP, but the financial barriers for those who are not can be high. About 4 per cent of Australians say they delay seeing a GP because of the cost.

The report finds that the funding, organisation and management of primary care has not kept pace with changes to disease patterns, the economic pressure on health services, and technological 

advances.

You can download the report for free here.

Hal Swerissen, Stephen Duckett, and Greg Moran. (2018). Mapping primary care in Australia. Grattan Institute.

Wellness Programs: do they work?

Wellness programs sometimes claim to save money by reducing health care spending, and the observational analysis usually supports this belief. This report tells us about a unique study published earlier this year looking into the effectiveness of the wellness program at the University of Illinois.
It evaluated the program (iThrive) implemented at a large employer with 12,000 staff in the US, using both an observational AND a randomized controlled study approach.
They took the 3,300 staff who accepted the wellness program, then analyzed them the way a typical observational trial would, comparing those who participated with those who didn’t. After one year there were no significant effects of the wellness program on the many outcomes examined, with two exceptions: employees are more likely to have received a health screening and to believe that the employer places a priority on worker health and safety.

Jones, D., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2018). What Do Workplace Wellness Programs Do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study (No. w24229). National Bureau of Economic Research.  

Low quality healthcare is increasing the burden of illness and health costs globally

Poor quality health services are holding back progress on improving health in countries at all income levels, according to a new joint report by the OECD, World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.

Today, inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack adequate training and expertise prevail in all countries.

The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries where 10 percent of hospitalised patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to seven percent in high income countries. This is despite hospital acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials.. At the same time, one in ten patients is harmed during medical treatment in high income countries.

These are just some of the highlights from Delivering Quality Health Services – a Global Imperative for Universal Health Coverage. The report also highlights that sickness associated with poor quality health care imposes additional expenditure on families and health systems.

Read the full report here
Watch the webinar here

People with dementia should be involved in discussions about their care, says NICE

People with dementia should be involved in discussions about their care, says NICE: Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive at NICE, reflects upon the difficulties people with dementia can experience, and how she hopes the guidance will help them, the family and their carers:

Dementia is a highly complex and challenging condition. It can present differently from person to person, having a huge impact on the patient, their family and their carers.

The new NICE guideline highlights the need to properly train staff and says that carers should be helped to improve support for people living with dementia.

The recommendations focus on person-centred support, placing a particular emphasis on involving people with dementia in every decision about the care they receive.

The guideline also discusses the various forms of dementia, how it may affect individuals in different ways and how support will therefore be adapted for each person.

Coordination of health care: experiences with GP care among patients aged 45 and over 2016

Shedding light on patient experiences with health care is becoming increasingly important as health systems strive to be more responsive to the needs of the people using their services. This report presents the first findings from the 2016 ABS Survey of Health Care at the Primary Health Network (PHN) area level, as well as variations in the use of and experiences with GP care by sociodemographic groups. It shows that the majority (98%) of patients have a usual GP or place of care and that 80% of patients have both a usual GP and place of care. Nationally, more than 8 in 10 patients (84%) felt that the quality of care they received from their usual GP or others in their usual place of care in the previous 12 months was excellent or very good; this ranged from 71% to 87% across PHN areas.
View or download the report here.