Here’s why a plan to turn private hospital giant Healthscope into a charity is stirring debate
Back in May, the parent companies of private hospital operator Healthscope fell into receivership, burdened by A$1.6 billion in debt.
Opinions
Lifestyle interventions must become a core part of mental health care
Australians living with severe mental illness continue to die around 15 years earlier than the general population. The majority of this gap is driven not by suicide but by preventable physical health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
Are we at the point where not using AI in medicine poses risk?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving rapidly from promise to practice in Australian health care. While the potential of AI in medicine has been recognised for a number of years now, technologies such as scribes have now become ubiquitous. This transformation into AI-augmented practice extends well beyond medicine, with nursing care and allied health applications emerging on the near horizon too.
Complex trauma and trauma-informed care over 30 years
Over the last 30 years, there have been significant advances in our understanding of ‘complex trauma’ — repeated ongoing and often extreme interpersonal violence, abuse and neglect, occurring at any life stage or over multiple stages. People experiencing the impacts of complex trauma benefit from medical practice which is trauma-informed.
27 October 2025
Eat kiwifruit for constipation, new guidelines say. But ditch the high-fibre diet
New guidelines on what to eat and drink if you have chronic (long-term) constipation have been making news in recent days.
New data shows wide variation in university graduates entering general practice and rural generalist training
At the Medical Deans of Australia New Zealand (MDANZ) Conference on September 4-5 in Newcastle, data from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) was presented, analysing the association between medical school graduation and entry into general practice and rural generalist (GP/RG) training in 2025.
Reducing coercion and improving outcomes in community mental health services
Maintaining treatment in the community, minimising admissions to hospital and shorter lengths of stay are common goals of community treatment orders. However, there is mounting evidence that too many people placed on these orders don’t experience these potential benefits. We found that any decreases in readmissions or the length of hospital stay mainly occur in people with non-affective psychoses such as schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder and drug induced psychoses even though people with many other diagnoses are also placed on orders. The disparities in the use of these orders raise concerns over equity and whether untargeted application could be doing more harm than good.
Prevention and treatment of side-effects from psychiatric medications
A recently released report by the Lancet Psychiatry Physical Health Commission highlights how prescribers and patients can make evidence-based decisions in maximising benefit and minimising side-effects from psychiatric medications.
Should there be a delay in releasing diagnostic results to patients?
Recent legislation mandated uploading of radiology results to My Health Record. The currently implemented approach imposes a 7-day delay in the patient accessing their results. This article suggests re-examining the benefits and risks of such a delay.
