Opinions

Australia’s public hospitals are the backbone of our health system — the places Australians turn to in moments of crisis, vulnerability, and profound need. Yet the findings of the Australian Medical Association’s 2026 Public Hospital Report Card make one thing abundantly clear: our public hospitals remain under severe and sustained strain. Despite the extraordinary efforts of doctors, nurses, and other health workers, the system is struggling to keep pace with rising demand, and patients are feeling the consequences.

Danielle McMullin

Researchers are uncovering important patterns in post-stroke cognitive impairment which suggest that factors outside stroke location contribute to the specific combination of deficits expressed in individuals.

Dr Margaret Moore

The number of Australians using medicinal cannabis has surged over the past five years. Around 700,000 Australians have used cannabis for their health in the past year.

Jack Wilson, Emily Stockings

A new nationally endorsed template aims to simplify and streamline Participant Information and Consent Forms for researchers and participants.

Lisa Eckstein

In times of strain, the quiet work of care — for patients, colleagues, and ourselves — becomes both more difficult and more essential.

Aajuli Shukla

Public trust in doctors and health services is shifting slowly, but in the wrong direction in both Australia and the US. At the Australian Ethical Health Alliance (AEHA) symposium in May 2025, the message was clear, that as health professionals, we need to take swift action. As panellists speaking on the rise of misinformation and disinformation, we explored how trust has always been the ethical currency of medicine; however, once you start to spend it, everything else, including vaccination, screening, shared decision-making and even discharge planning to aged care, becomes harder.

Adrian Cosenza, Emily Kirkpatrick 

The recent childhood vaccine changes in the USA, which substantially reduce the number of routine childhood vaccines, will sow more seeds of doubt and confusion in the community about the safety, efficacy and even the need of vaccines. We should not follow the opinions of politicians and of unsubstantiated antivaccine groups, but follow the science.

Gary Grohmann, Robert Booy

The term ‘bikini medicine’ originally highlighted the narrow reproductive focus of women’s health research, but has since broadened into a much-needed campaign for equitable inclusion of women across all aspects of health care. Continued use of this patronising pejorative term may paradoxically diminish rather than augment the overall push for better women’s health. So it’s time to abandon the bikini and in the 21st century seek sex- and gender-specific medicine for the whole person.

Nicholas M Fisk, Caroline de Costa

A sleek, colourful product offers a “sweet, ripe watermelon taste” with a “cool and icy kick” that will “tease your tongue and make your whole mouth quiver with joy”.

Michelle Jongenelis, Stefan Bode, Daniel Feuerriegel