HEALTH WOES IN THE NORTH

Cairns is the centre of one of Australia's major resort areas. There is a constant stream of planes landing with loads of tourists at Cairns International airport. The planes seem to roar in every ten minutes or so during the day. So you would think that health services there would be at a standard to create a good impression of Australia. Sadly, it is not so. And note that Cairns Base Hospital serves an area approximately the size of England -- in addition to treating tourist mishaps. Four current articles below

Paramedics dangerously overworked in Cairns

Twenty-four hour shifts and bullying are among a rash of new complaints outlined by stressed ambulance officers. Following a series of exclusive reports by The Cairns Post, more Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics yesterday came forward to detail the staffing shortfalls and other problems plaguing the service across the Far North.

They said overworked staff were sometimes too tired to even fill in their time-sheets properly at the end of shifts that extended to 24-hours in smaller centres with an overnight on-call component. "Everyone's being flogged to death but what choice do you have when there aren't enough staff and you've got a moral obligation to the community?" one paramedic said. Others told of a culture of bullying when complaints were made to management.

The paramedics who rang The Cairns Post yesterday said they felt compelled to speak out before a patient's life was "put on the line". Their complaints come after revelations this week that a student paramedic was left in charge of the entire Cardwell region for seven hours on Monday. The nearest qualified paramedic was more than 40km away in Tully.

Their concerns also follow the death last month of a Cairns World War II Digger who waited more than two hours for an ambulance to come from Kuranda the day he died. One paramedic described that situation as a "regular problem", saying he knew of a recent case where a Code 1 job outside the Cairns casino needed to be responded to by Kuranda and another less serious case where Gordonvale's unit had to be sent to Yorkeys Knob.

Queensland Ambulance Service's new Far Northern assistant commissioner Peter Cahill denied there was a shortage of ambulance officers and said he had not been briefed on any bullying issues. Mr Cahill said he would look into incidents if he had firm evidence. But he said the Far North region had a good record for response rates, with 50 per cent of Cairns and coastal region cases being responded to in 7.4 minutes, which was under the state average. He conceded 24-hour shifts were a long-standing practice for smaller stations but said staff were only on-call overnight for emergencies.

Opposition spokesman Ted Malone called on Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts to "stop covering up staff shortages".

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Cairns paramedics told to put names to complaints

Given the well-known bullying of paramedics by management, this is just stonewalling

The Queensland Ambulance Service will only investigate allegations by paramedics that they are being overworked and bullied by superiors if staff are willing to come forward. The bosses say they will also only investigate alleged unsafe work practices where students were put into positions alone without trained paramedics to back them up if officers will put their names to the complaints.

The response comes after revelations that a student paramedic was left in charge of the Cardwell region for several hours earlier this week. The Weekend Post has since been inundated with calls from paramedics, students and people in senior QAS roles, voicing concerns over practices they believe are "putting lives at risk". But all fear being named, saying they will be sacked or moved on.

"If we are given instances where people felt intimidated or they believe they are going to be sacked I would like to know about them," QAS deputy commissioner Russell Bowles said. "Apart from gross misconduct I have never seen anyone sacked.'' But one highly placed person in the service said there were often directives from the State Government banning staff from speaking out. QAS assistant commissioner Peter Cahill said he would investigate any incident raised through formal channels

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Cairns ambulance bosses say sorry for wrongful and fatal delay

Ambulance bosses admit a series of blunders may have contributed to the death of World War II digger Bob Mutton and have apologised to his family. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Changi prison camp survivor's death found a series of "operational deficiencies", including an unacceptable response time. Staff involved will be officially counselled.

The inquiry was launched after an exclusive report in The Cairns Post revealed Mr Mutton waited more than two hours for an ambulance. Releasing the outcome of the investigation yesterday, Queensland Ambulance Service deputy commissioner Russell Bowles told The Weekend Post: "It is very unfortunate and I am sorry that it happened and my heartfelt condolences go out to Mr Mutton's family."

On the day Mr Mutton died in late July, it took almost an hour for the first ambulance to be dispatched to his Cairns home after his doctor called to report the 88-year-old was struggling for breath. That ambulance was diverted four minutes into the job. After another 71 minutes, an ambulance arrived from Kuranda before taking him to Cairns Base Hospital where he later died. At the time, ambulance bosses blamed delays in reaching the war veteran on the number of ambulances delivering patients to Cairns Base Hospital. But the investigation found crews were in fact available to respond to Mr Mutton.

The investigation found the initial call was classified correctly but it was not actioned correctly. It also found there was an unacceptable initial response time and diversion, and that standard procedures were not followed when responding to calls made by Mr Mutton's doctor. "Standard operating procedure required a response to this case within 20 minutes," Mr Bowles said. "This did not occur as it took paramedics two hours and five minutes to respond.''

Mr Bowles added: "While some crews were waiting to admit patients at CBH, there were other resources available that should have been redirected. "Mr Mutton's case was urgent enough to require the attendance of one of those crews."

Mr Bowles said while some of the staff involved had been debriefed on the incident, others would soon be and they would be "officially counselled regarding this matter''. "We are human. We do 60,000 cases a year and now what we have to do as these cases come up is - and we don't always get it as right as we want - is not to have a witch-hunt," he said. Mr Bowles said as a result of the incident he had also directed the assistant commissioner Peter Cahill to reiterate to all staff the importance of following QAS policy and procedures. He said the QAS was trying to contact Mr Mutton's family to take them step-by-step through what happened on that fateful day.

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Two-day emergency department stay in Cairns public hospital

Cairns Base Hospital is again at bursting point, with patients being kept overnight in the emergency department because of bed shortages. Cairns Private Hospital has also been near capacity for the past two weeks, and has been forced to turn away some patients transferred from state facilities. Both hospitals have blamed the flu season and an ageing population for the capacity problems.

Victorian grandmother Lynette Thompson, who is visiting family in Cairns, said she was kept in the emergency department at Cairns Base for two days because staff were unable to find her a bed. The 72-year-old said while she had nothing but praise for hospital staff, she "did not dream the doctors could not find me a bed" in the main part of the hospital. Despite having private health cover, and the best efforts of doctors at Cairns Base, she said no bed could be found at the private hospital either. "I was absolutely horrified there was nowhere to go," Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson, who is from Ballarat and spends about two months in Cairns each year visiting her three sons, said she was "appalled" by the situation. "We would never consider living here permanently as we have such good health care in Ballarat and Melbourne."

Both Queensland Health and Ramsay Health said the reasons for the ongoing capacity problems were the ageing population [And that could not be planned for??] and the flu season. Ramsay Health boss Mark Page said Cairns Private had not turned away any booked patients but there had been cases in the past few weeks when it had been unable to accept some transfer patients. "All five operating theatres are also operating at capacity," he said.

A Queensland Health spokesman said no patients requiring admission had been turned away from Cairns Base Hospital. "However, once admitted to the emergency department, some patients may experience a delay in being transferred to a ward due to a shortage of beds in the main hospital at the time they are admitted," he said.

Cairns Base Hospital executive director of medical services Dr Kathleen Atkinson said the hospital had implemented a number of strategies to cope with the rush. She said those strategies included more efficient discharging of patients who were ready to go home and the transfer of patients who were no longer acutely ill, but still needed to be in hospital, to a smaller, rural health facility. Dr Atkinson also urged people to consider if a visit to their general practitioner was more appropriate for their condition than presenting at the emergency department and to undertake health precautions such as having a flu vaccination.

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Taxpayers' money to Multinationals??

Carmakers in line for an EXTRA $2 billion of the readies -- on top of what they get already. It's hard to believe that this is a Labor Party government. It is certainly clear that it is an economically illiterate government

AUSTRALIAN carmakers will get $3.5 billion in government assistance over the next decade - $2 billion more than currently anticipated - but will be forced to compete with cheaper imported cars under recommended changes likely to form the basis of the Rudd Government's new plan for the sector. The long-awaited automotive review from former Victorian premier Steve Bracks said the Government should ignore pleas from the car industry, unions and state governments for continued tariff protection and proceed with scheduled tariff cuts from 10 per cent to 5 per cent in 2010. That reduction would cut between $1500 and $2000 from the cost of the average imported family car.

But Mr Bracks said the Government should achieve its stated goal of ensuring a future for struggling Australian carmakers by promising generous new cash grants and by paying them for longer. Mr Bracks told The Weekend Australian his plan would leave the industry - which employs 65,000 people, predominantly in Victoria and South Australia - "better off overall than had we recommended a freeze in the tariff".

The car industry has benefited from a long series of generous "adjustment schemes" since tariff barriers began to be dismantled in the mid-1980s, but Mr Bracks insisted this should be the last time it put its hand out for "transitional assistance". He said he was recommending assistance for five years longer than previously envisaged, but "our clear recommendation is that this should be all that is required".

Industry Minister Kim Carr, who will use the review as a major input to the new car plan he will take to federal cabinet within weeks, said "no one got their wish list" from the Bracks plan, but he was confident that by 2020 the policy would result in "an Australian car industry that is greener, more responsive to the demands of the market, employs more people and exports more".

Kevin Rudd also made it clear he was supportive of more assistance to the industry. "I say to everyone loud and clear that we are long-term believers in industry in Australia, long-term believers in industry policy in Australia, long-term believers in manufacturing in Australia, long-term believers in the automobile industry in Australia," the Prime Minister said.

The big carmakers and the unions welcomed the proposed financial assistance, but demanded the Government also slow the pace of tariff reductions. "In the time between Mr Bracks finalising this report and it being made public today, the Doha Round of trade talks has collapsed," Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar said. "That changes one of the key assumptions in this report, and we think the Government should rethink and adopt a phased or staged approach to tariff reductions."

GM Holden managing director Mark Reuss said there was concern within GM Holden, and parent company General Motors, that reducing the tariff from 10 per cent to 5 per cent in 2010 as planned would outweigh the benefits of new programs in the review.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union federal secretary Ian Jones also argued against cutting tariffs ahead of trading competitors.

Mr Bracks recommended a new Global Automotive Assistance Scheme to provide carmakers with grants worth $1.5 billion between 2010 and 2015 and another $1 billion to be paid between 2016 and 2020. This would replace the already-legislated Howard government scheme, which would have provided import duty credits worth $1 billion between 2010 and 2015, with no further assistance proposed after that date.

Mr Bracks also recommended the Rudd Government's $500 million Green Car Fund be available from next year and have its funding doubled to $1 billion, if it proved successful. Under another option, which he did not recommend, the green car funding would remain at the current $500 million. Mr Bracks proposed the Government set aside between $60 million and $80 million from its new fund to help pay for restructuring and redundancies for car component makers, estimating that one-third of Australia's 200 component makers were in financial difficulty.

Mr Bracks wants Australian car makers and component makers to export far more of what they produce. Mr Bracks has also targeted his recommendations towards a "greening" of the Australian industry. He said the Government should run a competitive selection process for the Green Car Fund. He called for the taxation review by Treasury head Ken Henry to rework the controversial fringe benefit tax on company cars, which rewards those who drive further, and said the Government should increase to $2000 the rebate for LPG units fitted to new cars.

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Unashamed Fascism from the Warmists

A wet dream about police action to enforce Warmism below. The authors are Anthony Bergin, director of research programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Ross Allen, an "independent researcher". We read: "ASPI is an independent, non-partisan policy institute. It has been set up by the government to provide fresh ideas on Australia's defence and strategic policy choices". The "fresh" ideas below go back to Mussolini in the 1920s. Musso was a Greenie too

AFTER the release of the Rudd Government's green discussion paper on climate change last month, eyes are focused on how business and the community will be affected by the mitigation costs of climate change. But there has been little attention given to climate change and its implications for Australian policing. As the principal domestic security actor in Australia, with 44,000 officers, the eight police forces that serve this country need to think harder about how climate change may affect their core business.

Most Australian senior police officers haven't considered climate change to have much relevance for their work. The notable exception is Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, who suggested last September that climate change could eclipse terrorism as the security issue of the century.

Climate change could have wide-ranging implications and challenges for Australia's police. New legal regimes are required to manage carbon markets and these will require compliance and enforcement. Compliance under the carbon pollution reduction scheme will involve liable entities monitoring and reporting emissions at least annually.

The Government proposes establishing an emissions trading regulator as an incorporated body with a high degree of operational independence. The regulator will have its own investigation and enforcement mechanisms, and trading activities could be covered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Detailed compliance and enforcement arrangements are to be developed, but the regulator and ASIC may wish to invite police involvement to investigate criminal breaches of the scheme once legislation has been defined. This will require police to develop knowledge and competencies on the use of emissions trading for money laundering and fraud.

But we may have expectations of law enforcement agencies that they're not in a position or resourced to deliver: large-scale fraud has proven to be resource intensive, particularly when the territory is uncharted. The possibility of a "green shoe" brigade emerging as the scheme begins can't be discounted. The financial scale of emissions trading and the proposed future linkages to existing international carbon trading schemes suggests the AFP will need to explore what opportunities exist for criminal activity, particularly where emission trading intersects with world financial markets.

While we may be confident in the capabilities of Australian policing and our regulatory institutions, there's cause to be concerned that Pacific Island states will be vulnerable to criminal activity associated with carbon markets. They don't have the capacity to handle large and complex investigations.

We may see changes in the type, rate and frequency of crimes as our climate alters. Anecdotal evidence suggests that weather does encourage particular types of criminal behaviour, such as changes in domestic violence patterns, a rise in drunkenness and associated anti-social behaviour, especially in the aftermath of disasters.

A key risk is that climate change could push already vulnerable pockets of communities further into hardship. The drought, for example, is changing the demographic make-up in areas affected by water availability. Lower socio-economic groups are relocating into drought-affected towns because the cost of living is cheaper. This could create a vicious cycle of poor economic prospects and associated social ills, including increases in personal and property crime rates. If drought conditions continue we may see increases in a range of water thefts. Crimes of opportunity will increase with more climate-affected natural disasters: if custodial sentences are given to looters this will have obvious implications for our prison system.

Climate change may have implications for police budgets; responding to a higher frequency of weather-induced disasters will divert already scarce resources from core police business. Climate change may contribute to regional events that require police to act in complex emergencies. Australian police could provide, for example, a security presence at refugee camps or at key transit areas in regional countries to help manage any potential mass movement of people. More climate refugees or climate migrants could pose problems for community policing, possibly leading to changes in the rates and types of crime that police forces will have to confront.

In vulnerable areas, police will need to play an active role enhancing community preparedness by educating the public in disaster-response protocols. The co-operation between state police and the military will need to improve to aid the Australian civil community in times of traumatic environmental stress.

In the face of increasing numbers of state police involved in responding to disasters, police agencies will need to consider the physical and psychological effects of climate change on their personnel. The emotional trauma of dealing with affected communities in natural disaster areas could have a psychological effect on some officers when they return to normal duties.

Australian police forces will also need to take on board the lessons from recent natural disasters and start a process to climate-proof their infrastructure and address redundancies in systems to adapt to climate change. Our police officers may have to face more environmental protest groups challenging governments to go further in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Law enforcement bodies would want to avoid aggressive and heavy-handed approaches in responding to this potential problem.

Police will need to adopt a "low carb" approach to daily business; like other large organisations in Australia, police agencies will have to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There has been little planning to make existing police infrastructure more energy efficient. Police fleets still largely consist of petrol-guzzling vehicles that are out of touch with efficiency trends and spiralling fuel costs.

Australia's police should bring together in a national information hub present knowledge and future thinking on climate change and its implications for law enforcement. Understanding the criminal implications of drought conditions would be an obvious starting point. Australia's police forces should co-operate with research bodies to develop risk assessments of locations likeliest to be affected by climate change as part of a multi-agency strategic approach to climate change adaptation.

While it's unlikely we will see climate-change squads in our police forces in the near future, the release of the Government's green paper provides the opportunity for Australian police officers to start considering how they will need to adapt to the challenges posed by the severity and effect of climate change.

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Laugh of the day: Moronic "health" warning

Crazy health warning over Chinese erection drug Nangen Zengzhangsu. Why the warning? Because it contains sildenafil. Sound bad? LOL! Sildenafil is just the chemical name for Viagra!

The [South Australian] Health Department has warned men to avoid a Chinese drug for erectile dysfunction because it can cause heart attacks or strokes in vulnerable users. Chinese medicine Nangen Zengzhangsu can contain prescription-only drugs and is not commonly available in Australia, but can be purchased overseas or ordered online. It contains the drugs glibenclamide, used to treat diabetes, and sildenafil, which is used to treat erectile disfunction and should not be used by people with heart problems. The side effects of sildenafil range from sudden cardiac death, heart attack or stroke to headache and abnormal vision.

"Sildenafil should not be used by individuals taking any type of nitrate drug, due to the risk of developing potentially life-threatening low blood pressure," said SA Health's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paddy Phillips.

Glibenclamide can cause dangerously low blood sugar levels if used inappropriately, causing dizziness, confusion, vomiting, loss of consciouness or fitting. Canadian health authorities issued a similar warning in June, following an alert from the Hong Kong Department of Health early this year. SA Health only issued the warning yesterday, after a 60 year-old South Australian man suffered an adverse reaction to the drug.

According to the Canadian authorities, it can also be sold under the product name Sanbianwan, Jiu Bian Wang, Tian Huang Gu Shen Dan, Zui Xian Dan Gong Shi Zi, and Power Up. "Anyone who has this product is advised not to use it and to consult their medical practitioner if they have any health concerns related to its use," Professor Phillips said. "Patients taking any kind of alternative medical treatment should be aware of what the medication contains and the potential side effects involved and should inform their doctor they are taking the product."

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