ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG has joined the chorus seeking some action from Peter Costello -- who is probably the best hope for conservatives at the next election.




GLOBAL COOLING

Unusually cool weather from North to South in Australia. See three current reports below. And Australia is a big slice of the earth's landmass. See map:



Coldest SA August in 35 years

ADELAIDE has recorded its coldest August in more than 35 years. The city had an average temperature of 14.8C for the last month of winter. That compared with a usual average of 16.6C for August. Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Allan Beattie said the previous record for a cold August was in 1970 when the average temperature was 14.4C. But the coldest August was in 1951 when the average temperature was 14.1C.

Adelaide's winter this year also had a below-average temperature of 15.5C, compared with the usual average of 16C. Last month was also wetter than usual for August. Adelaide received 85mm of rain compared with an average of 66.5mm, the wettest August since 2005. However, winter as a whole received average rainfall of 222mm of rain.

Adelaide's coldest maximum temperature this winter was 11.1C on July 7, Mr Beattie said, while the coldest minimum temperature was 0.7C on July 28.

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Sydney August was coldest in 64 years

SYDNEY'S global warming sceptics have a new bit of ammunition - the harbour city just experienced its coldest August in 64 years. But the skies are expected to clear in September, that is once the current rainy spell clears later this week. With official monthly figures released today, meteorologists say Sydney is likely to clock an average temperature of 12.7C, the lowest since World War II.

Some suburbs experienced their chilliest August on record including Canterbury, Homebush, Penrith, and Richmond - all which started keeping records 12 years ago, along with Bankstown, Parramatta and Prospect Dam, which began keeping records 37 years ago. "They broke minimum temperature records," Weatherzone meteorologist Matt Pearce said.

He said the extreme - by NSW standards - cold was caused by a "longways trough", a large system pushing west to east, over the state. "There's no real indication that September's going to be as cold as August was."

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Brisbane records coldest August in eight years

THE weather experts have confirmed what Brisbane people suspected - the city has just shivered through its coldest August in at least eight years. It also was the driest since 2001, with Brisbane picking up just 16mm of rain, below the long-term norm of 35mm.

Brisbane recorded an average minimum of 9C and an average maximum of 22C, slightly down on the long-term normal temperature for the month of 23C, Weatherzone meteorologist Matt Pearce said. "This made it the coolest August in terms of daytime temperatures since records began at the site in 2000," he said. "In fact, on the 18th, the temperature struggled to just 17C - the coldest August day in three years."

August nights also were cool in Brisbane. Gladstone, Yeppoon, Emerald, Toowoomba and Rainbow Beach also set record August lows. Wetter and warmer conditions are expected for the first week of September, with rain and maximum temperatures of 19C to 21C forecast to Friday.

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AUSTRALIA'S PUBLIC HOSPITAL CHAOS CONTINUES

Three current articles below -- again from North to South in Australia

Incompetent management cuts down surgery at major public hospital

Cairns hospital serves an area roughly the size of England

A feud between doctors and management at Cairns Base Hospital has slashed its surgical capacity by half as surgeons walk off the job. The hospital is in disarray with two surgeons - including the director of surgery - on stress leave following a fallout between staff and management. An email inviting hospital staff members for beer and wine during work time, to discuss a patient's death, has also intensified the stand-off from surgeons.

Elective surgeries at the hospital have been cancelled or heavily delayed and outreach surgery to Innisfail Hospital has been suspended. The district's only vascular surgeon is one of the surgeons on leave and patients are now being referred back to their GPs. Some patients have reportedly been sent to Townsville Hospital.

An insider has told The Cairns Post that half of the staff surgical team is now out of action after the two surgeons went on stress leave in June. The comments come on the back of a shocking week for Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson who has been under fire for reports of hospital downgrades and department cutbacks.

Queensland Health has refused to comment on why the Cairns surgeons took leave but a source said a dispute between surgeons and anaesthetists sparked the breakdown and led to one surgeon taking stress leave. A complaint about a surgeon was made by an anaesthetist, which eventually led to both surgeons taking leave, said the source, who asked not to be named. The source said the relationship problem snowballed when a patient died and an email was sent to staff inviting them to discuss the death over beer and wine - during work hours. Both of the surgeons were on stress leave at the time and were disgusted to read the email.

"The email was sent out to all of the staff without consent of the relatives or by the surgeon to present the case," the insider said. "Normally, when something happens like a death, you have a small circle of people - you don't have Tom, Dick and Harry there. "And it's completely unethical to have alcohol when you discuss something like that.'' Lawyers are now involved.

The hospital has been plagued with problems of ambulance ramping in recent months and bottlenecks due to a chronic shortage of beds. But the most recent June quarter report showed that long-wait surgical patient numbers had been reduced, largely because of an increase in surgery being outsourced to private doctors. To tackle the overcrowding, Queensland Heath is planning a $450 million redevelopment of the hospital, after a community campaign launched by The Cairns Post.

The source said Cairns' surgical dilemma was beginning to mirror Townsville Hospital's debacle where a squabble between staff saw the hospital's cardiac services shut down last year. The Australian Medical Association is expected to comment on the situation today. Yesterday, a spokesman for Queensland Health could not confirm if the meeting involving alcohol took place or whether a patient's death was discussed.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health said a comment could not be given in relation to staff's personal details but confirmed two surgeons had been on stress leave since June. Two surgical locums will be employed between now and December to try to cope with the increasing workload.

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Government 'in denial' over problems at major Tasmanian public hospital

A FORMER doctor at the Royal Hobart Hospital says the State Government is in denial over issues that have plagued the facility for years. James Freeman trained and worked at the hospital before moving to the private system in search of better pay and conditions. He sums it up: "Houston, we have a problem!" Surprisingly, hospital officials agree with many of his comments.

Dr Freeman said it was frustrating to hear of the despair in the public system when most of the problems were relatively easy to fix. "While a new hospital at some stage in the future is an excellent dream, what is required is substantive action right now," he said. "This crisis can be addressed but it does require money. Far less money than a new hospital . . . more importantly, it requires motivation."

Dr Freeman said the first issue surrounded the number of acute beds. In 1980, he said, there were 600 public beds and today there were fewer than 300, mainly because of the introduction of day surgery beds. "More patients don't fit that well into half as much space," Dr Freeman said.

RHH communications director Pene Snashall said the hospital had a total 550 beds across the Royal, the Repatriation Centre in Davey St and St John's Park at New Town. Ms Snashall said only 90 of those were for day surgery beds. "Of the 460 beds remaining, the amount that are available will fluctuate on a daily basis depending on staff availability and staff sick leave," she said. "And while it has been reported that we only have a 95 per cent occupancy, people have to understand that is because -- being the only public hospital in the South -- we have to balance beds for emergency and beds for elective surgery." Ms Snashall said this balancing act was difficult and, while it could be done better, it worked.

Dr Freeman also highlighted the lack of nursing staff and pointed to the urgent need for federally funded nursing-home beds for patients being discharged from the RHH -- one of the causes of ambulance ramping. Simple measures were needed such as reinstating a cleaner to the after-hours theatre and offering childcare facilities to mothers who were nurses. Until the denial by bureaucrats ended, he said, the treatment and cure of a sick health system was unlikely.

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Queensland health system short of 1000 nurses

I gather that bullying and inflexible management -- plus endless paperwork -- is a major reason why many staff have left nursing and will not return

QUEENSLAND'S struggling health system is short of more than 1000 nurses despite some aggressive recruitment efforts, according to a government report. The report, accompanying the Bligh Government's revamped Skills Plan, says research had "projected a shortage of nursing professionals in Queensland of roughly 1100 in 2008". The shortage persists despite recruitment campaigns interstate and overseas, and a rise in the number of people studying nursing in recent years. It threatens to hamper government plans for more hospital beds to come on line with extra nurses needed to staff them. The report comes as hospitals struggle to cope with demand amid dire bed shortages.

Ambulances at the weekend continued to wait for hours outside southeast Queensland hospitals to offload patients to overcrowded emergency departments. Jason Dutton, the state organiser of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union that represents ambulance drivers, described the situation as no better than last week when ambulances spent hours "ramping" outside a number of Brisbane hospitals and at Logan.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said none of the state's hospitals had been on bypass but could not rule out further cuts to elective surgery waiting lists, which had affected 11 hospitals last week. "Typically, this is always our busiest time of year," Mr Robertson said.

The Opposition yesterday attacked the Government for including 1370 chairs in its count of 10,234 Queensland public hospital beds. The Courier-Mail's sister paper, The Sunday Mail reported at the weekend that Government figures showed 14per cent of the bed count included chairs, trolleys, cots, stretchers and lounge suites. Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg accused the Government of gross manipulation. "They'll be including photocopiers next - anything you can actually sit or lie on," Mr Springborg said.

Education Minister Rod Welford said nursing and technology were areas in which the Government needed to focus its skills plan. "Enrolments in nursing courses are currently not keeping pace with those retiring from the profession, which is already feeling the impact of an ageing population," he said. He said Queensland Health estimated that 73.4per cent of nurses were aged over 40.

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