Call for opioid maintenance therapy copay on PBS
Ensuring Opioid Maintenance Therapy is affordable for patients is an important strategy in helping stem prescription opioid and heroin addiction, a new report has found – but the current copayment …
Golden Staph cases dropping
Australia’s major public hospitals have recorded a marked fall in the rate of healthcare-associated Golden Staph bloodstream infections, the latest report from the National Health Performance Authority shows. The number …
PSA Board urges action on Community Pharmacy Agreement
The Board of the PSA has issued a call to action to its members to ensure the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement provides the best possible outcomes for consumers and the …
Pharmacists improve meds compliance, QoL: UK study
Community pharmacists can improve medicine compliance and patient quality of life by focusing on patients over the age of 65 years who are taking four or more medicines, an English …
CMA calls for light regulatory touch
Complementary Medicines Australia has responded to the Government’s Expert Review of Medicines and Medical Devices Regulation by calling for regulation that reflects risk, protects consumers, safeguards quality and promotes industry …
Workplace Quit Smoking Program for Queenslanders
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says employers can help workers quit smoking by joining the free Workplace Quit Smoking Program. Delivered by the Queensland Quitline service, the program …
Childhood cancer survival rates growing
Childhood cancer survival has increased in Australia by 6% over recent decades, but one in five kids affected will still die within five years, new Cancer Council figures have revealed. …
Weight loss programs not backed – with exceptions
A new review of thousands of studies has found little evidence for the long-term benefit of commercial weight loss programs in the US – with a few exceptions. John Hopkins …
Harper Review ‘muddled, intellectually lazy,’ says Quilty
The Harper Review’s final report is “muddled and intellectually lazy,” Guild executive director David Quilty writes in this week’s edition of forefront. “The final report of the Harper Competition Policy …
Are families sedating kids with antihistamines?
A fifth of NSW families are sedating their children during long car trips, according to media reports over the long weekend – but a leading pharmacist has queried this statistic. …
Need for pharmacy reform ‘dire,’ says health economist
Australian community pharmacy is in “dire need of reform,” a prominent health economist has written. On today’s The Conversation, Philip Clarke, Professor of Health Economics at the University of Melbourne, …
Aussies still reckless on food safety
Australians are still exhibiting some careless food safety behaviour, says the Food Safety Information Council today (World Health Day 2015) – and while food poisoning cases are dropping, numbers are …