Racism, exclusion and discrimination feature heavily in the column this week, as do concerns about safety and quality of healthcare.
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In reporting on wide-ranging global health, public health and First Nations health matters, we feature a Papal quote marking #WorldFoodDay:
War brings out the worst in humanity: selfishness, violence and dishonesty.
Let us reject the line of reasoning that embraces weapons, and instead transform massive military expenditures into investments to combat hunger and the lack of healthcare and education.”
In the spotlight
Below are details of new publications on racism, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and the spread of COVID in hospitals.
Racism
Racism is commonplace and normalised in Australia and can affect almost every part of a person’s daily life, according to a new report.
The report, An Anti-Racism Framework: Experiences and perspectives of multicultural Australia, was commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), produced by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), and released today at the FECCA conference in Brisbane.
While racism is pervasive, the report also found governments and the media are culpable in further marginalising people through a culture of silence, which either ignores or minimises incidents of racism or stokes divisions through sensationalist rhetoric.
It makes 11 recommendations, including that combating racism against First Nations peoples must be at the forefront of reform. It is part of a suite of work helping inform the National Anti-Racism Framework, which the Commission will deliver to the Federal Government on 26 November.
FECCA Chairperson Carlo Carli: “This report shows the need for a comprehensive anti-racism strategy in this country has never been stronger.”
Improving COPD care
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality today released a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Clinical Care Standard.
In a media statement, the Commission said one in 13 Australians over the age of 40 have COPD, but only half know they have it.
Awareness of this incurable lung disease – which makes it difficult to breathe – lags considerably behind other serious chronic health conditions, despite COPD being a leading cause of avoidable hospitalisations.
COVID concerns
ABC journalist Hayley Gleeson published an important story this week reporting that thousands of patients caught COVID in NSW public hospitals last year and hundreds died, “fuelling concerns among infection control experts and healthcare workers that hospitals are not taking strong enough precautions against airborne viruses”.
NSW Ministry of Health data released under freedom of information laws shows at least 6,007 patients caught COVID in hospital in NSW in 2023 and 297 died — about 115 laboratory confirmed infections and six deaths per week, on average.
Admission screening testing of patients and staff N95 respirators are cost-effective in reducing COVID-19 hospital-acquired infections: “In acute care settings, staff N95 respirators and admission screening testing of patients can reduce hospital-acquired COVID-19 and COVID-19 deaths, and are cost saving because of reduced patient bed-days and staff replacement needs.”
Global health
From the World Health Summit in Berlin to media reports in Aotearoa/New Zealand, racism in healthcare has been under examination. 
The Lancet Commission Global health 2050: the path to halving premature death by mid-century states that dramatic improvements in human welfare are achievable by mid-century with focused health investments.
“By 2050, countries that choose to do so could reduce by 50 percent the probability of premature death in their populations – ie, the probability of dying before age 70 years – from the levels in 2019. We call this goal 50 by 50. The interventions that enable achieving the goal of 50 by 50 should also reduce morbidity and disability at all ages.”
Transitioning to Midwifery Models of Care: Global Position Paper
First Nations health and wellbeing
Public health
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/australian-and-new-zealand-journal-of-public-health/vol/48/issue/5 
https://theconversation.com/lessons-for-the-next-pandemic-where-did-australia-go-right-and-wrong-in-responding-to-covid-239819?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton
Health and aged care reform
A campaign to raise awareness of aged care star ratings is wasting public money
Singing from the same hymn sheet – solutions for mental health care in Australia
Evaluation of the Eating Disorders Medicare Benefit Schedule items
#AusPol
https://news.mit.edu/2024/mit-economists-daron-acemoglu-simon-johnson-nobel-prize-economics-1014
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