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The Northern Rivers Medical Exchange

“Health has never led in digital transformation” noted Martin Bowles, Secretary for the Commonwealth Department of Health, this week on his visit to the Northern Rivers. Never a truer word has been said.

Secure electronic communication has been available in Australia for over 15 years. Yet despite the uptake by many specialist and most general practices a significant amount of data still comes to GP surgeries by mail or by fax. Holding medical information in this “image” format poses two problems for general practitioners.

Details: Written by: David Guest; Published: 09 November 2016

Dr Sally Gibson (left) and Dr Carmen Jarrett from the NSW Health Ministry’s Youth Health & Wellbeing Team.

New research into young people’s health experiences

We know a lot about young people and their access to health services, including access to primary care. We know that young people do not always know where to go to get help, or know about their right to confidential healthcare, and that they are less likely to have the money to pay for a visit to a General Practitioner who does not bulk bill.

We know that young people are frequent users of hospital emergency departments. We also know that young people will look online for information about health and health services, and we need to keep pace with the emerging uses of technologies to inform and provide healthcare for young people.

The need to provide healthcare with the needs of young people in mind is now well recognised (see for example the recent series of articles in The Lancet 383 (9915) 2014, the recognition of adolescents and young adults as an area of specialisation in medicine, and the WHO report Health for the world’s adolescents: a second chance in the second decade ).

Details: Written by: Dr Carmen Jarratt; Published: 08 November 2016

Managing Elderly ACF Patients - A Tidal Wave Building

Australia is an ageing population. There is an increasing percentage of elderly . We now have more illnesses, more surgery and more medication than ever. In some cases, this makes for a healthier aged population. In other cases , there are now more people with chronic illnesses, iatrogenic illnesses, drug interactions, dementia and loneliness issues as they live longer, often outliving their family.

Our society also has greater expectations, perhaps falsely, to live healthier lives, longer. It appears the elderly, and their younger relatives are unaware that some illnesses are chronic, and death is inevitable.

Details: Written by: Dr Mark Scurrah, Psycogeriatrican, Ballina ACAT services; Published: 06 November 2016

Local Health Programs - What's On?

A partnership between Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSW LHD) Health Promotion Unit and the Northern Rivers General Practice Network has led to local health promotion programs being promoted directly to general practice patients as they wait for their appointments.

“We deliver a range of free, high quality and evidence-based health promotion programs across Northern NSW for quitting smoking, healthy eating and physical activity, reducing risky drinking and preventing falls”, said Gavin Dart, Acting Health Promotion Manager.

“Working in a more collective and coordinated way with general practice is a priority for us because they have established trust and rapport, and see the people that could benefit most from our programs regularly”.

Details: Written by: Health Promotion, Northern NSW Local Health District; Published: 04 November 2016

Lifestyle and distance hit cancer patients

Lifestyle behaviours and distance from a metropolis are the major factors contributing to regional Australians contracting cancer at higher rates than city dwellers, and being more likely to die within five years of diagnosis.

These are key findings in the Garvan Research Foundation’s new rural health report ‘A Rural Perspective: Cancer and Medical Research’

While remote and very remote dwellers were found to have the worst cancer survival rates, the nation’s cancer ‘hot spots’ are the inner regional areas - including the NSW North Coast.

These have the highest incidence rate in six of the selected cancers: prostate, breast, colorectal, melanoma of the skin, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and kidney cancer.