11/11/19 - 17/11/19
What a phenomenal week!
With the launch of our volunteer form, we received almost a new book per day - an incredibly promising start to expanding our catalogue. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a little extra gratitude to all our human books for taking part in this project; I appreciate and welcome your support.
This past week has also seen a boom in healthcare news, so there has been an absolute flurry of activity behind the scenes as I’ve scrumbled this round-up together
In the news this past week…
AMA released this year’s Private Health Insurance Report Card to provide clear and simple information about the ins-and-outs of health insurance to patients. A transcript of AMA president Dr. Bartone’s doorstop interview is available here, which is well worth a quick read if you want his overall analysis of the problems and solutions in private and public healthcare and health finances.
The 2019 Annual Update on the Implementation of the Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision is now available here. Findings were mixed, but if improvements continue at current rates we can remain optimistic, particularly with regards to systemic issues of access to care and public health issues (such as the reduction of community hotspots for trachoma).
I’m sure everybody received missives from their various workplaces that Thursday 14th November was World Diabetes Day. Given the furore over the Lancet Countdown 2019 Report on the relationship between health and climate change, I chose to delve into a couple of (somewhat older) articles which scrutinised the link between climate change and diabetes specifically. You can find Schultz and Tait’s letter to the MJA here, Dain and Hadley’s report for Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice here, and Colagiuri’s article in Journal of Public Health Policy here.
Overwork is, as ever, a key focal point this week, with the release of the 2019 Hospital Health Check. You can find the results here, which accounts for more than 20% of all doctors-in-training working in NSW. Although interviewed separately, Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee, Dr. Genevieve Yates, and Chair of the AMA Council of Doctors in Training, Dr. Tessa Kennedy, both described a common culture of burnout in junior doctors which needs to be immediately addressed. You can find Dr. Yates’ interview here, and Dr. Kennedy’s interview here.
GPCE made its final rounds for the year in Melbourne over the weekend from 15th-17th Nov. If you have experiences you want to share, I’d love to hear from you as I prep for next week’s weekly roundup!
Finally, we want to extend our congratulations to Dr. Dev Tilakaratne and Dr. Christopher Ross for receiving the Telstra NT Emerging and Energised Award for their service Dermo Direct. The difficulties of finding and accessing specialist healthcare in rural and remote areas is a well-known struggle among GPs and their patients, so any and all telemedicine services which can appropriately administer diagnosis, care, and management are warmly welcomed.
Next week in events…
General Practice Supervisors Australia is running a webinar with Dr. Paul Grinzi teaching addiction medicine on Wednesday 20th Nov. You can find details here.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Australasian Doctors’ Health Conference 2019 is being held in WA. Between 22nd Nov. and 23rd Nov., ADHC will be in Perth exploring the theme of “Creating a Healthy Workplace”. Given this week’s spotlight on the enculturation of overwork and burnout, it might be worth looking out for the workshops on doctors' health. You can find conference details here.
Is there a piece of health news you know I missed? An upcoming event you want to share? Get in touch at gp.living.library@gmail.com, or simply comment below.
See you next week!
Liz
Living Librarian