This column brings news on the next National Rural Health Commissioner, the NSW Budget, and a consultation for First Nations people on the National Lung Cancer Screening Program, as well as tweet-reports from several conferences over the past week.
Don’t miss the article about how Philip Morris established a cigarette factory at Auschwitz in a manufacturing plant once used by the SS to torture and execute prisoners. During these same years, cigarette makers were publicly equating cigarettes with liberty, airing advertisements comparing smokers to the persecuted Jews of Nazi Europe.
The investigation of ‘peak denial’ is another recommended read; it brings some helpful strategies for busting the silencing and complacency that surrounds so many of the world’s crises.
The quotable?
Just like friends staging an intervention, there was honesty, support, hope, dare I say love, in the room today. Public conversations about Medicare where everything is open for conversation, even the more sensitive issues, are essential.”
Deep diving
Scientific American: We’ve Hit Peak Denial. Here’s Why We Can’t Turn Away From Reality
This article explores how we are living through terrible times, why we tend to stick our heads in the sand and why we need to pull them out, fast.
In the short term, living in a state of “peak denial” helps us cope. However, it is dangerous because it desensitises us to respond with “passive acceptance rather than urgent collective action”.
The article gives some practical tips for resisting complacency, including understanding how it operates.
Medium: What we are up against
This essay investigates the links between neoliberalism, inequality, the undermining of democracy and the climate crisis. “The fossil fuel industry is a long-time promoter, as well as beneficiary, of the neoliberal takeover of our societies,” writes the author.
Public Culture: Why Did Philip Morris Stop Making Cigarettes at Auschwitz?: An Essay on the Geometry and Kinetics of Atrocity
This article, published in January this year, is jaw-dropping.
The abstract reads: “After the collapse of communism in the satellite states of the Soviet Union, global cigarette makers began acquiring factories throughout Eastern Europe to capitalise on this new market opportunity. Drawing on victims’ accounts of the Holocaust, this article rediscovers the Philip Morris cigarette factory at Auschwitz – a manufacturing plant once used by the SS to torture and execute prisoners from the first transports to the killing center.
“Confidential tobacco industry documents disgorged through litigation show that the world’s largest cigarette maker was aware of this heritage prior to purchasing these factories, and made efforts to control the fallout from this potential PR blunder. During these same years, cigarette makers were publicly equating cigarettes with liberty, airing advertisements comparing smokers to the persecuted Jews of Nazi Europe. Exposing these trespasses both physical and rhetorical, this article reflects on one site where two very different atrocities collide.
Making connections
Croakey readers will no doubt find connections between the articles mentioned above, and the issues covered below, around inequalities in the distribution of health, wealth and power.
Frontiers in Communication: Inside a corporate affairs conference: the race for a social license
Conference Watch
The Global Health Security conference is in Sydney from 18-21 June. The Australian Centre for Disease Control is among the topics discussed so far.
The Academy of Social Sciences hosted a conference on 19 June, The Future of Medicare: Research-informed policy for better access and health.
Dr Elizabeth Deveny, CEO of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, posted the following reflection on the event on Linked In, republished with permission:
“Is Medicare having a mid-life crisis? Today’s great symposium on the Future of Medicare felt a little like a group of caring friends staging an evidence-based intervention to help a dearly loved 40-year-old get back on track.
The day started with the premise that 40 years ago, Medicare was introduced to reduce healthcare costs and simplify the healthcare system. Along with Pradeep Philip, Prof Jane Hall and Richard Holden on the first panel, we asked: ‘Is Medicare doing this now?’
I’m keen to know – what do you think?
There was a lot of talk about the universality of Medicare. What does universality mean to Australians? Is it about everyone paying their share to fund Medicare? Or is it about everyone getting fair access? Maybe it’s about healthcare being free for all? This is a question we must answer together.
There’s more to Medicare than simply defining universality. Baked into Medicare are assumptions about risk versus benefit – it’s a debate at the heart of healthcare. Should we use data about patient risk to determine access to care? Or should the likely benefit from treatment be more important?
This question is more than academic. There were lots of conversations today about how we allocate taxpayers dollars to ensure the best outcomes for all Australians. Prioritising risk helps us address the most urgent needs first. But focusing on treatment benefits can lead to long-term health improvements. Striking the right balance is critical. I’d love your thoughts.
Health equity was a recurring theme running through the sessions today. Tailored approaches to address inequities, like targeted bulk billing incentives or MyMedicare, can be problematic. These proliferating programs aim to help but in practice can make the system more difficult to navigate and so more inequitable for health consumers.
The role of administrative data in evaluating and researching Medicare’s effectiveness cannot be overstated. Often it is all we’ve got. Yet administrative data is not usually collected for research or evaluation purposes. Colleagues presented important insights using this not always fit-for-purpose data. It’s crucial to bring academic views, such as those of health economists, evaluation experts, and others, into the conversation alongside public servants, citizens, industry, and clinicians.
Just like friends staging an intervention, there was honesty, support, hope, dare I say love, in the room today. Public conversations about Medicare where everything is open for conversation, even the more sensitive issues, are essential. By bringing all voices to the table, we can move forward together and ensure our healthcare system meets the needs of all Australians.”
Dr Elizabeth Deveny is second from the right, in the photo below.
Other conference news
First Nations peoples’ health and wellbeing
Healthcare matters
Deeble Institute: Integrating oral health into primary healthcare for improved access to oral health care for rural and remote populations
Maldistribution of public dental services, long-standing shortage of public dental workforce, and frequent turnover among public dental professionals primarily contribute to the problem of oral health care access in rural and remote areas, according to this new issues brief.
BMJ: Analysis reveals global post-COVID surge in infectious diseases
A large post-COVID global surge in common communicable diseases including influenza, measles, tuberculosis, and whooping cough has been identified in a new analysis of data from 60 organisations and public health agencies.
Since the beginning of 2022, 44 countries have experienced a 10-fold increase in the incidence of at least one of 13 infectious diseases compared with a pre-pandemic baseline, according to the analysis by the UK based disease forecasting firm Airfinity and the US news website Bloomberg.
#AusPol
NSW Budget
#CroakeyREAD
NITV: New book reveals names of those who led frontier massacres
A new book exploring the violent expansion of the colonies into the continent’s north will introduce readers to those who led massacres of Aboriginal people, the names of their benefactors, and how these horrific events occurred.
Written by Dr Robyn Smith, a Lecturer at Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Colonial History, Licence to Kill: massacre men of Australia’s north, details the massacres from 1824 until the 1980s.
Appointments, awards and opportunities
Professor Jenny May AM, currently the Director of the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health based in Tamworth, NSW, has been appointed Australia’s next National Rural Health Commissioner, according to an announcement by Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler.
She will assume the position on 2 September and her appointment is until 30 June 2026. An Acting National Rural Health Commissioner will be appointed for the period between July and September 2024.
The Government thanked Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart, outgoing commissioner, for her leadership, commitment and passion for the health of Australians in rural and remote areas over the last four years.
May has worked as a rural GP for more than 35 years in rural, regional and remote WA, NT and NSW as well as overseas in rural Canada. With 20 years in health education, she has also taught Australia’s medical, nursing and allied health students of the future.
May features in this Croakey report from the National Rural Health Conference in 2019, speaking about the importance of a whole-of-government response on climate change.
“Our rural communities are very concerned about the impact of climate change,” she said in an interview. “They are very aware of the climate changing around them and that is having impacts on what they do and the quality of their lives.”
Events
Register here to join the #CroakeyLIVE on scope of practice reforms, from 5-6pm AEST, on Tuesday, 25 June. More details are here.
