Croakey is closed for summer holidays and will resume publishing in the week of 15 January 2024. In the meantime, we are re-publishing some of our top articles from 2023.
This article was first published on Wednesday, February 22, 2023
***This column was updated on 23 February to include comments from the World Health Organization on the earthquakes in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic ***
At last, news of actual health reform. In Western Australia, 20 nurse practitioners will be funded over two years, to work both autonomously and in collaboration with other health practitioners to diagnose and treat a wide range of health conditions – and their services will be free to patients.
Meanwhile, Dr Richard Smith, a former editor of the BMJ and chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, delivers some hard-hitting analysis of the differences between health and healthcare.
As climate disruption hits widely, the Australian Government’s climate policies come under critical scrutiny.
And governments have been urged to invest in vaccines for all strains of influenza virus that exist in the animal kingdom as an insurance policy in case of an outbreak in humans. Read on …
One to watch
UNESCO is hosting the “Internet for Trust” conference in Paris to discuss a set of draft global guidelines for regulating digital platforms, to improve the reliability of information and protect freedom of expression and human rights.
The discussions, from 21-23 February, will be of great interest to those concerned about the wide-ranging health issues involved. Follow #InternetForTrust and watch the broadcast here.
See the Twitter thread by Dr Julie Posetti.
Climate disruption
Climate disruption is being blamed for rationing of fresh produce in the United Kingdom, the closure of health services in the United States, and the spread of malaria in Africa. In Australia, heatwaves are affecting those already most at risk of health problems.
Meanwhile, Australia continues to expand fossil fuels operations.
A must-read article on the greenwashing of policies. 
On the role of local governments in climate action
What every health minister should know?
Dr Richard Smith, in ‘A four minute guide to the rudiments of health and healthcare for those responsible for maintaining health systems’, delivers some pithy lines rarely, if ever, heard from health ministers. They are summarised thus:
- Health and healthcare are different things
- Healthcare accounts for only 10 percent of health
- Increasing funding of healthcare paradoxically worsens health
- The costs of healthcare rise primarily because of the possibilities of doing more to respond to sickness
- Increased supply is an important driver of demand
- Longer lives are accompanied by longer spells of poor health
- Prevention is not cheaper than treatment, particularly in the long term
- Few patients are cured
- The division between health and social care makes no sense
- There is huge variation in all aspects of healthcare
- Cost and quality in healthcare are not correlated
- How well people do with long term conditions is determined by them and their carers not by the health system
- Most caring is done not by health professionals but by family and friends
- Healthcare, particularly hospital care, is dangerous
- Healthcare cannot reduce inequalities in health
- A higher ratio of primary to hospital care means more patient satisfaction, better outcomes, and lower costs.
First Nations
Read the statement calling for dual naming.
COVID matters
For information about the review. 
Read the AFR article. 
Read the article in The Conversation
AusPol
Read the Women’s Health Council communique.
See the consultation hub at the Lung Foundation Australia 
Global health
The overall death toll from earthquakes in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was now more than 47,000, with 125,000 people injured, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a media briefing on 22 February.
In Türkiye, at least 15 hospitals have been damaged with many health facilities affected.
Across the Syrian Arab Republic, seven hospitals and 145 health facilities have been damaged. Many of these are in the north-west, which has been ravaged by war for more than a decade and is therefore more vulnerable to shocks like this.
With 26 million people affected by the earthquake, WHO has launched a flash appeal for US$84.5 million to support the immediate health response efforts in both countries.
Read: Responding to the Türkiye–Syria earthquake: what will it take?
Read: Afghanistan’s health system is under duress, but has not collapsed 
Develop vaccines for all animal influenza strain, says incoming WHO chief scientist
An avian flu outbreak is spreading to mammals – what is the risk to humans? Quoting UNSW virologist Professor Bill Rawlinson 
Read: Case studies expose deadly risk of mpox to people with untreated HIV 
Read: Fentanyl: America’s struggle to contain a deadly drug
Workforce matters
See Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler’s media statement: Enhancing team based primary care with nurse practitioners in WA:
“The Nurse Practitioner and Team Based Care Pilot will fund 20 nurse practitioners over two years, who will work both autonomously and in collaboration with other health practitioners to diagnose and treat a wide range of health conditions – and their services will be free to patients.
This pilot will improve patient access in underserviced and vulnerable populations and help address health workforce shortages in WA.
Nurse practitioners engaged through the pilot will be based in primary care services throughout WA. The precise locations will be subject to an EOI process.
The program will work closely with primary care providers and nurse practitioners to successfully design the new models of care, and provide governance, change management, community education and clinical coaching support. Evaluation of the program will inform future policy.”
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