Qld. government denies its hospitals are in crisis

The Queensland Government has denied the state's health system is in crisis despite finding that four unregistered foreign-trained interns were undertaking the work of doctors at Cairns Base Hospital. The scandal comes two years after Indian-trained surgeon Jayant Patel was blamed for contributing to the deaths of 17 people at Bundaberg hospital, which led to a radical shake-up of the health system.

Queensland chief medical officer Jeanette Young filed a report to the Government yesterday which said that not only had four overseas-trained interns been doing the work of doctors at Cairns Base Hospital earlier this year, but two medical supervisors had allowed them to do such work even though they knew the four were not registered doctors. Two of the four interns have been dismissed and one is in the process of being dismissed. Another has been registered and is now practising as a doctor at the hospital.

Two medical supervisors at Cairns Base Hospital, acting executive director of medical services Wayne McDonald and deputy medical superintendent Ric Streatfield, face an ongoing examination of their actions by Queensland Health's Ethical Standards Unit as well as the Queensland Medical Board, which is responsible for the registration of doctors in the state. The investigations will look at not only their actions in allowing the interns to perform the work of doctors but also reports they gave to Queensland Health that indicated the interns were being supervised and had no direct contact with patients. The initial reports to the Government were that the four had always been under supervision but Health Minister Stephen Robertson sent Dr Young to Cairns to investigate patients' files.

Dr McDonald has already resigned from Queensland Health, but the medical board has the power to ban him from practising medicine in Queensland. Dr Streatfield could face a range of disciplinary actions, including being sacked.

Mr Robertson and Dr Young yesterday denied that the incident showed a system-wide problem in Queensland Health, and said the problem had come about because the hospital did not follow guidelines. "This is not a system in crisis; this is a system under pressure," Mr Robertson said. "This is not Bundaberg; the circumstances are quite different." Mr Robertson said that, although the Government had outlined clearly what guidelines needed to be followed, that had not happened in this case. "The guidelines are very clear: you don't employ doctors that are not registered by the medical board," Mr Robertson said. "I also want to stress this was a mistake made by one local hospital; it is not a whole-of-system flaw."

Three of the interns are Alex Burgansky, who did much of his secondary schooling in Ukraine and is under investigation, and Lulu Meng and Juan He, both from China, who have been sacked. The fourth, who is now a practising doctor, has not been identified. Cairns Base Hospital takes 18 interns most years, but with a shortage of doctors in regional Queensland, the intake was increased to 24 interns this year. All 24 places were filled with graduates from Australia, but when four dropped out, the hospital was forced to look overseas for replacements.

Source




Ill-effects of the "obesity" campaign

The number of Australians with eating disorders has doubled in the past decade and specialists think obesity hysteria could be to blame. New statistics released today indicate almost five per cent - one in 20 people - suffer from either binge-eating disorder or other extreme fasting and purging behaviours. This was a leap from the two per cent recorded ten years earlier.

The survey of more than 3000 Australians captured a massive jump in the so-called "minor" eating disorders, but suggested rates of the most severe conditions, anorexia and bulimia, were stable. The results were collated from two South Australian studies from 1995 and 2005, but study leader Phillipa Hay, head of psychiatry at James Cook University, said they reflected a nationwide trend. "We're surprised and obviously concerned too," said Prof Hay, who will present the unpublished data at a national psychiatry conference on the Gold Coast today. "This is an alarming trend which shows these problems are being felt more widely than first thought."

The study showed the number of people with regular eating disordered behaviour - those who binged or displayed other extreme weight control problems at least weekly - had ballooned from 4.7 per cent to 11 per cent. And the people considered to have a full-blown eating disorder grew from two per cent to 4.6 per cent over the decade. These people had the behaviour accompanied by severe weight, shape, body image concerns and psychological disturbances.

Of particular concern, said Prof Hay, was growth in the so-called unspecified eating disorders, which include fasting, purging and the use of laxatives to control weight. "These conditions still affect people's lives significantly, meaning they do not function properly, miss work and cannot perform their usual roles," she said.

Women were five times more likely to have a disorder than men, but the study found a sharp rise in males with the problems, particularly bingeing. "It's a clear problem when it's spreading into groups that weren't typically affected by weight issues," Prof Hay said. A large proportion of sufferers were overweight or obese, but one in ten people in the normal weight range were "extremely concerned" about body shape.

Psychiatrists speculate the results reflect increased community and media hype about obesity, dieting and body shape. "People are getting heavier and there are a lot of messages and warnings out there are reflecting that," Prof Hay said. "But the obesity epidemic has to be managed very carefully because there is this whole other problem it could be creating." She said the answer lay in promoting healthy eating and exercise, and not extreme behaviour, to help people manage their weight positively.

Source





Voting with their feet: Australian parents show what they think of government schools

Many suffer considerable hardships to escape such schools

With private school fees soaring towards $20,000 a year, how much more sacrifice can struggling parents bear? A new breed of parent is emerging in the school communities of Melbourne's most established independent schools. These aspirational parents can't, strictly speaking, afford to send their kids to a secondary school where the average annual fee for a senior student is charging towards $20,000, or $400 a week. But if both parents work, or if grandparents help, or if the mortgage can bear it, they believe they can pull it off. Even, it seems, if it means being stressed and exhausted for years.

Adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has noticed the number of families stretching themselves to pay for such schools, and puts it down to guilt. He says parents want to be seen to be doing the best they can for their children, and for some this means getting on a "spend and earn hamster wheel" for years.

Across Australia, more parents are enrolling their children in independent schools - rising from almost 10 per cent in 1996 to 13 per cent in 2005, according to Association of Independent Schools of Victoria figures. They are doing so at a time when the Consumer Price Index for secondary school education is rising ahead of inflation, with a hike of about 6 per cent a year for the past six years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.



The result is that some of Melbourne's most established private schools - unless they decide to absorb costs - will break through the $20,000 a year barrier for fees next year. Many schools already charge about $18,000 a year for year 12, with some, such as Scotch College, Haileybury and St Catherine's School, charging more than $19,000 a year. Such a sum may soon not seem so high. With the secondary-education CPI forecast to continue to rise at about 6 per cent a year, the parents of today's prep students could be paying more than $35,000 a year in school fees for established private secondary schools by the time their children reach year 12.

Sounds improbable? If you ask parents of today's year 12 students, most will recall senior high school fees at independent schools being about $10,000 when their child was in primary school. And many are still getting their heads - and wallets - used to the idea that the fees have almost doubled. Most independent schools contacted by The Age acknowledged that $20,000 was a "psychological barrier", but did not think parents would baulk at paying more, because education was a priority. Even in households struggling to pay.

Some would say this obsession with obtaining an elite private school education - no matter what the financial or personal cost to some families - defies logic. A number of principals said some parents were under great strain, but refused to consider sending their children to state and Catholic schools or the cheaper independent schools springing up in the outer suburbs.

St Michael's Grammar School principal Simon Gipson says people are more "acquisitive" these days, with education seen as a key investment. Other principals agreed that some parents view an expensive education for their children as a valued possession, even a status symbol, that they are prepared to work hard for - and go into debt to obtain.

Certainly, private education is now on the wish list of many households, so much so that parents start debating how to pay the fees when the children are in kindergarten, says Jo Silver, the executive officer of Parents Victoria. She says many parents decide whether to increase the mortgage, apply for scholarships, set up trusts or join tax-effective education plans.

Many women work part-time when the children are at primary school, but go full-time once they go to secondary school. "They also realise they need to find a higher-paying job." But she says parents can forget to factor in annual fee increases. Recent publicity about an annual average of $5000 per student in government funding for independent schools has led some parents to expect fees to plateau. "At some point the fee rises have to stop," Ms Silver says. "It's quite concerning that it is going up to such an extent . . . and yet people are quite willing to put a lot of money into this."

Melbourne Grammar headmaster Paul Sheahan says the annual fee rises are driven by parents' expectations that schools will not stint on resources. "We are all trying to keep ahead of the game and offer bigger and better," he says. "Competition certainly comes into it." The expectations come from parents who, ironically, are having to work harder to pay for those multimillion-dollar technology suites. Korowa Anglican Girls School principal Christine Jenkins has altered the timing of parent functions to take account of working parents. She attributes annual fee rises partly to teacher salaries but also to technology costs. Both parents work in 80 per cent of St Michael's students' families. Mr Gipson describes his parent body as diverse, ranging from "taxi drivers to captains of industry and everything in between".

This is not the stereotype of the inner city private school parent. The Australian Education Union's Victorian president, Mary Bluett, echoes popular sentiment by saying: "Only 8 per cent of the school population go to these elite private schools - and a very large proportion can afford those fees in a blink." Yet increasingly parents do seem to be blinking when the bills arrive. Melbourne Girls Grammar principal Christine Briggs says only a handful of parents would not find the fees an issue. "Most parents are working very hard to pay them. But once parents decide that education is a priority, they do not falter," she says. "They will have more modest housing, cars and holidays." She worries that some families put education ahead of family wellbeing. "If it does seem a very big stretch, then my advice is to look at the government school system," she says. "The most devastating thing is for debt to crush the spirit of a family."

The notion that private school parents are by definition wealthy is incorrect, says Melbourne Grammar's Paul Sheahan. "We have a very wide spread of economic financial background, and there are families who extend themselves significantly to pay the fees," he says. "People subject themselves to huge hardship to keep children in our school." He says if fees continue to rise there will be a point of resistance. "We haven't reached that yet. As long as the product we provide is seen as significantly superior, people will dig deep."

This may sound provocative, but the Education Union's Mary Bluett partly agrees. She says state schools cannot compete with the "old school tie, fantastic facilities and small class sizes" of the elite private schools. But she says many state schools offer a good-quality education, and parents should visit local schools before making a decision. "There is a lot on offer in the state system, but until we get a state government that makes funding a priority there is no competition." Ms Bluett accepts that not all private school parents are wealthy, but says such schools highlight struggling parents to get more government funding.

This claim riles Michelle Green, chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria, who argues that there are more parents earning more than $1500 a week with children in government schools than independent schools. However, Daniel Edwards, a research fellow at Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research, says his analysis of 2001 ABS data found that 23.5 per cent of independent secondary school students came from families with parents earning more than $2000 a week, compared with only 6.5 per cent of students in the government sector.

Just as the wealth of private school parents is contentious, so is the appropriate amount of government funding. Michelle Green's view is that private schools are entitled to funding because parents pay taxes, and also save the state money by paying hefty fees. Are such high fees worth it? Clearly this is hard to measure. Paying $18,000 a year provides no guarantee of a child's happiness or academic success. But Jo Silver of Parents Victoria says most parents believe they get value. Her concern is with how hard many parents, particularly mums, are working to pay fees. "We (mums) are running a very tight race and have limited time to spend with our families," she says. "The expectations of helping with homework, taking them to after-school activities and weekend sport are very high. You have to be well-organised and respond (well) to stress."

Psychologist Dr Carr-Gregg says parents need to re-prioritise. "The catchcry of parents in 2007 is: 'Do you have any idea how much it costs us to have you here?"' he says. "Parents do the maths and will say things like, 'It's costing 56 cents a minute'. What are they thinking? Nobody has put a gun to their head." Parents in Melbourne and Sydney, in particular, send their children to private schools when they can't afford to, he says, out of guilt, an obsession with VCE scores and in the hope of joining networks of "doctors, lawyers and socialites".

He says when parents make such a big financial investment in a child's education, the kids can believe life is not worth living if they don't perform. "Mum and dad being away from home for long times goes against everything we know about the healthy development of children," Dr Carr-Gregg says. "Parents work their butts off to pay $18,000 a year, and the kids come home to an empty house where they disappear behind the emotional firewall of MSN."

Latchkey kid syndrome is one side effect. Marriage breakdown is another. Karen Weiss, the regional manager of Relationships Australia (Victoria), says many parents feel inadequate if they can't afford a private education. "It puts huge pressure on families," she says. Yet she has noticed that one of the few things divorcing parents agree on is keeping the children at the expensive private school.

To achieve this can be tricky. Mark Lowe, a financial adviser with Tandem Financial Advice, says the amount of money required these days is staggering. "You do hear of marriages breaking up because of it," he says. "When you have to pay such big money out of after-tax income, it is very hard for people." Some people feel pressured to take on debt. "If the local schools are perceived as substandard, there is a feeling of guilt about it," Mr Lowe says. "Sometimes you have to speak harshly to people and say, 'you can't afford it'."

More members than previous years of the Australian Scholarships Group, a company offering education savings plans, are defaulting on payments this year, says ASG general manager, communities, Warwick James. He says families at the most expensive schools are increasing their mortgages and postponing holidays to deal with rising fees. And the pressure won't let up. ASG estimates that from now on, annual private school fees will rise by about 8 per cent, which Mr James says is conservative.

Dr Carr-Gregg reminds parents that they have options, such as moving to an area where they are happy with the local school, rather than killing themselves to pay fees. "I wonder if the joy of being a parent is being lost."

Source






Magnetic pulses cure depression?

A new technique of firing magnetic pulses into the brains of severely depressed people has produced startling successes, researchers say. Melbourne scientists have tested a new therapy on depressed patients who do not respond to standard drug treatment and found half improved markedly. The technique is a variation of so-called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in which magnetic pulses are fired rapidly into the "overactive" parts of a depressed brain.

This therapy has a 30 per cent success rate, but researchers at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital realised they could lift this to 50 per cent by prepping the brain with a series of weak, high frequency pulses. "Doing this in some way prepares the brain to respond better to the standard TMS therapy, which is quite remarkable," Professor Paul Fitzgerald told a national psychiatry conference on the Gold Coast. The researchers tested their combination technique on a group of 60 hard-to-treat patients, giving half of them 10 minutes of weak pulses before their standard 15-minute session on a daily basis for four weeks. An electrical current was passed through a coil above the skull, creating a magnetic pulse which fires into the brain, changing the activity of nerve cells.

"A lot of people in this trial achieved clinical remission, and this is what matters," Prof Fitzgerald said. "They were able to resume their normal lives, and often return to work." Magnetic stimulation therapy has been around for about a decade and is used widely in Canada, but it is still regarded as experimental in Australia. Prof Fitzgerald said the impressive results of combination therapy make TMS a much more viable form of treatment. "It has the potential for being an early intervention treatment for the most depressed people who don't show signs of improvement on drugs," he said.

Source