Public hospitals and private pathology providers
Jan18

Public hospitals and private pathology providers

Recent reporting from the Australian Financial Review shows that Capital Crescent, the private equity firm that owns Australian Clinical Labs, is experiencing some big financial problems. And they aren’t the first private pathology company to experience financial problems. But what happens to the delivery of pathology in public hospitals when private pathology providers cut staff and services; or worse, go out of business? We’ve...

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Think about health and your career this election
Jul01

Think about health and your career this election

After nearly 8 weeks of this federal election campaign, it comes down to the final pitches from the major parties about who can best lead Australia as voters head to polling centres on 2 July. And while it has been the longest campaign in a very long time, and perhaps the most mind-numbing, this election is extremely important for the kind of health system we want and the sort of future we create for ourselves. Since coming to power...

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Election 2016
Jun24

Election 2016

In the lead up to this year’s federal election the Union feels it is important to highlight a number of key issues for members to think about before voting on 2 July. Mental health services at risk from Turnbull Liberal Government So far important issues like mental health have been ignored in this year’s federal election. While there has been a lot of heated discussion about mental health, there has been too little focus on...

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Unpaid work, workplace cultures and patients

The Union has been researching the impact and extent of unpaid work and the workplace cultures that support it. And it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that there is a disturbing trend emerging across all health services to rely on unpaid work to fill gaps in rosters. It would be simple to lay the blame at the continued cuts to healthcare. The truth is that the cuts to healthcare are a big driver behind health services wanting more...

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Health is emerging election issue
May30

Health is emerging election issue

The Turnbull Government spent last week attempting to show voters it is serious about healthcare. Unfortunately the reality is that the Government has no plans on taking healthcare seriously. Last week the Turnbull Government was trying to claim that giving private pathology providers assistance with their collection centre rent would somehow mean they won’t charge up-front fees for tests. And this week we had the Turnbull Government...

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Election 2016 is the Health Election
May16

Election 2016 is the Health Election

Now that the election has been officially called it is vital that we ensure that healthcare is given a very high priority. Even though healthcare is regularly one of the key issues Australians think about when they head to the polls, it’s absolutely essential that we ensure it is the key issue this election. The Budget handed down by the Turnbull Government last week (3 May) did nothing to change the radical cuts to healthcare...

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