This page records the details of the weekly Croakey e-bulletin (subscribe here), and some of the wider impacts of our work. See our readership figures here.
Previous years impact reports can be found at the bottom of this page.
See our comprehensive list of Twitter lists to follow for news on Indigenous health, climate and health, COVID, public health and more.
Impact Reports
2023
We record our social media analytics using Buffer and Twitter Analytics. The figures below are for total impressions across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
January: 250,696 impressions
March 2023
February 2023
During February our articles and contributors featured in the BMJ, The Guardian, and publications by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association and others. During the month, the offices of 236 Members of Parliament across all jurisdictions opened our weekly Croakey News bulletin.
Here is how our readership tracked in the first two months of 2023 compared with the first two months of 2022.
1 Jan – 28 Feb, 2023: 50,332 visitors to the website + 2,607 visitors to Croakey stories at Apple News. Total: 52,939 visitors.
1 Jan – 28 Feb, 2022: 37,534 visitors to the website + 9,100 visitors to Croakey stories at Apple News. Total: 46,634 visitors.
Week ending 3 March: This week at Croakey we’re showcasing the power of engaged and committed communities in driving societal changes.
Sydney WorldPride and Sydney Mardi Gras celebrate what can be achieved when diverse communities come together to challenge oppression, systemic injustice, stigma and discrimination.
We report on important policy and research news for LGBTIQA+ health and wellbeing, as well as Pride in Medicine – the doctors, medical students and allies who marched together at the parade.
Less glamorous – but also important – are the processes involved in changing government policy and legislation, such as Senate inquiries and departmental consultation processes.
Holly Brennan OAM reports on a current Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare, arguing that reproductive choice needs to be embedded throughout our health and wider systems.
Jennifer Doggett investigates challenges facing the Urgent Care Clinics, and also highlights the importance of the consumer voice in the current debate over pharmacist prescribing.
Charles Maskell-Knight analyses new Medicare data providing important details about access to bulkbilled services, while Dr Sebastian Rosenberg investigates whether the NDIS is an oasis or mirage for psychosocial care.
We also bring a compelling #longread on how powerful corporate interests – in this case milk formula companies – evade regulation and undermine health and wellbeing.
Don’t miss our two-part series on what the pandemic has meant for musicians, reported by Alison Barrett and Yolngu musician Yirrmal, who writes: “Music should make you feel something or else it’s not doing its job.”
Week ending 23 February: We explore the many intersections between health and other fundamental human rights, including the right to a safe environment, whether in a health service or prison.
Our stories also underline the right to have voices heard and concerns addressed. Contributors examine why this is especially important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for people with disabilities, and for rural communities whose livelihoods are under threat from extreme weather.
In closing the #HealthyCOP27 series, Amba-Rose Atkinson calls for climate solutions that are First Nations-led. “To salvage the future of the planet and humanity, we must challenge existing systems of colonialism, capitalism, and extractivism that fuels climate change,” she writes.
As the world marks the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new report calls for Russia’s sustained attacks on healthcare facilities and health workers to be investigated as war crimes.
Meanwhile, the health sector has been encouraged to engage with concerns about Australia’s human rights record.
Senior public health experts, drawing upon their experiences of previously working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, make some suggestions for a National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The CDC is also covered in the The Health Wrap, as is the importance of the arts for health and wellbeing, and the latest on social prescribing.
Our ICYMI column reports on global efforts to regulate digital platforms, the costs of climate disruption, long COVID and also brings some timely, if provocative, advice for health ministers and policymakers.
Don’t miss the latest stories in our ongoing series previewing health issues and the NSW election.
Leading the bulletin is a fresh take on health reform by Jennifer Doggett. What do teachers have in common with general practitioners?
#HealthyCOP27 series
This week we published the final article in the #HealthyCOP27 series. 
As part of the project, the Croakey team and wider networks maintained an active Twitter presence using the hashtag #HealthyCOP27.
An analysis prepared by Tweetbinder found 688 tweets were sent using the hashtag during the period of the project, from 2 August, 2022 – 27 February, 2023, with 171 Twitter accounts involved. The estimated economic value of the hashtag was $31,303.61.
A summary of the key findings follows below.
Also of note
Week ending 16 February: Catastrophic flooding. Then a devastating cyclone, followed by an earthquake. Our thoughts are with our neighbours in Aotearoa/New Zealand who are still to fully measure the consequences of the recent disasters they’ve experienced.
As many Australians face dangerous heat conditions in coming days, our bulletin puts a timely focus on disaster preparedness.
We also feature calls to put the voices of people with lived experience at the centre of policy decisions and reform, whether in mental healthcare, Long COVID or via a Voice to Parliament.
Charles Maskell-Knight takes a deep dive into new national data on bulkbilling rates; you may be surprised by some of his findings.
The commercial determinants of health are in focus as Communications Minister Michelle Rowland comes under pressure to resign over gambling industry donations. Meanwhile, Cancer Council WA calls for more effective regulation of alcohol marketing.
Melissa Sweet covers a new report investigating greenwashing by some of the world’s wealthiest companies, and suggests the health sector has something to learn from this analysis.
We report on the welcome announcement of permanent visa pathways for refugees, but highlight that much more is required for many others.
Key health issues are raised by the Public Health Association of Australia NSW Branch ahead of the NSW election. Bookmark #NSWVotesHealth2023 for upcoming articles.
The #ICYMI column includes notable new publications, as well as some everlasting Valentine’s offerings.
Don’t miss a new report celebrating the achievements of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) and the organisation’s Elders and members. You can download it here.
Croakey Professional Services
Making news
Out and about
Week ending 9 February: We join with readers in acknowledging the devastating impact of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and call on agencies and governments worldwide to work together to support survivors and affected communities.
Meanwhile, the messy and often frustrating process of policy reform is a key theme of our bulletin this week.
We acknowledge the positives of a government willing to take action on long neglected issues, such as Medicare reform, while also examining obstacles to progress.
Continuing our coverage of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report, we bring two reports following a National Press Club debate on health reform yesterday.
Croakey managing editor Alison Barrett details the United Nations Secretary-General’s calls for 2023 to be a year of “game-changing climate action”, and also covers the Climate Inequality Report 2023.
To mark Safer Internet Day, we report on research released by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and VicHealth, highlighting the harmful impact of digital marketing. And there’s a new report from Cancer Council WA, ‘Junk food in sport: it’s just not cricket’.
Psychiatrists Dr Michael Dudley and Professor Louise Newman call for a Royal Commission into Australia’s immigration detention policy to investigate the costs and human rights impacts.
Don’t miss this week’s ICYMI column covering changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, the historic blocking of Clive Palmer’s coal mine proposal, National Cabinet’s commitment to the Voice, and the toxic impacts of the oil and tobacco industries (along with some positive news on a soft drink tax).
On Safer Internet Day, @CroakeyNews compiled a must-read Twitter thread of relevant articles published by Croakey Health Media.
Making news
Listen to Croakey editor Jennifer Doggett speaking on The Guardian podcast.
Week ending 2 February: This week’s bulletin highlights the many ways in which unequal power structures are a barrier to improving equity, health and justice.
From the scandal of political parties accepting donations from the fossil fuels, tobacco, gambling and alcohol industries to governments’ denial of the impact of COVID-19, our stories demonstrate how those in positions of power often resist changes that would undermine their influence and authority.
The preventable death in a Victorian prison of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson is yet another example of the violent nexus between colonisation and incarceration. We examine the health sector’s role in addressing these injustices.
We also highlight strategies for change, including policies to support a more diverse media landscape, suggestions for challenging “COVID hegemony”, and calls to improve regulation of trans-fats in our food supply.
As we await the outcomes from National Cabinet’s meeting tomorrow and the release of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report, we take a comprehensive look back at previous reform efforts – remember the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission?
Meanwhile, there’s been a warm reception for the Government’s announcement of funds to support people with lived experience of mental ill-health in driving reform.
Climate scientist Professor Will Steffen, who died this week, was a stellar example of speaking truth to power. We join with health leaders, scientists, politicians and others around the world in warmly acknowledging his contributions.
Making news
A tweet by Melissa Sweet was included in an article at The Conversation, ‘Discriminatory impact on First Nations people’: coroner calls for urgent bail reform in Veronica Nelson inquest’.
The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre included a Croakey article on COVID prevention in its latest newsletter, and the AHHA bulletin also linked to several articles.
Croakey Professional Services
We published the final article in a series profiling the 25-year achievements of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives, ‘Amid momentum for change, now is the time for system reform to embed cultural safety’, with an e-publication to come. 
2022 Impact
We record our social media analytics using Buffer and Twitter Analytics.
For 2022 we had a total of 9,606,305 impressions across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Impact Report – September 2022
