Health System in Australia: What Malaysian Students and Authorities Can Do?

Health System in Australia: What Malaysian Students and Authorities Can Do?


SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS: 

1- For pregnant mum-to-be, better book your plane ticket early, and go back to Malaysia and deliver your baby, do not put your life and baby at risk, sounds crazy? But the health system in Australia is currently crazy. Unless of course, you want to pay AUD$7000 (for a service, God knows what to expect, insincere nurses' services, who just only a few weeks ago, went on strike for pay increases, and have been ignored by the hospital administration and government).

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/fury-as-surgery-stopped/story-fn7x8me2-1226194961257
Nurses Deciding on Treatment as Beds Strike Dispute Continues
by: Stephen Drill and AAP From: Herald Sun, AAP November 15, 2011 12:00AM

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/nurses-may-risk-jail-in-new-strike-20111120-1npdo.html
Nurses May Risk Jail in New Strike
Reid Sexton
November 21, 2011


2- Once back in Malaysia, book a doctor's appointment as soon as possible, at any government hospital, and/or you can opt for a private hospital (for RM2000-4000). In that private hospital, you can choose your doctor, you can even choose the gender male or female doctor, of your choice! (For Muslim female patients, they prefer female doctors, and halal meals - which is not available in Australian hospital - even at the cost of AUD$7000).


LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS: 

1- The Malaysian Students Council/Association in Victoria and Australia need to 'voices out' their dissatisfaction, over the matter/issue, get their voice heard through the mass media (e.g. newspapers, radios, televisions, Internet, etc.).

2- The Malaysian Consulate also need to seriously look into the matter. They need to talk to the Australian health authorities (i.e. the hospital that reject the patient), and related government bodies (i.e. Ministry of Health, The Australian Health Commission, etc.).

3- The Malaysian Consulate also need to seriously look into the matter. They need to talk to the Australian Health Insurance bodies (e.g. OSHC Worldcare, etc.), over the issue and re-negotiate over the terms and conditions, the key point is 'WE want better terms and conditions', IF all things fail - why then bother to buy their insurance, and make the CEO rich (buy from someone, who is willing to listen).

4- Also this matter is not an isolate issue, other Asian countries like, Indonesian students, Vietnamese students, Chinese China students, Pakistani students, Indian students, ETC. are all in the same delimma/predicament. The Asian University Students Representatives (SR) council/association should also be contacted to strengthen the 'dissatisfaction' and 'calling for immediate action.'

5- The university authorities (e.g. international unit/department and Vice Chancellors, at Monash University, RMIT, La Trobe University, University of Queensland, etc.) should be informed of the situation, and to ask them to look into the matter, as to why they require (or make it compulsory) for students to buy these insurance, when it does not cover 'obstetrics and gynaecology' care).


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/fury-as-surgery-stopped/story-fn7x8me2-1226194961257

Nurses Deciding on Treatment as Beds Strike Dispute Continues
by: Stephen Drill and AAP From: Herald Sun, AAP November 15, 2011 12:00AM

UPDATE 12.45pm: PATIENT care at Victorian hospitals is being "horse traded" with nurses in charge of who gets treatment instead of doctors, a Fair Work Australia hearing heard today.

Nurses union representatives are ticking off each patients' surgery, deciding if they are sick enough to get treatment, in a situation which comprises care, Department of Health performance executive director Frances Diver told the hearing.

Patients are facing more uncertainty as nurses' bed closures and safety cancellations drag into a fourth day. The Fair Work Australia hearing will hear more evidence this afternoon but a decision will not be reached before tomorrow. Ms Diver told the hearing she feared patient care would be significantly compromised as the dispute dragged on.

She said that some patients who had chosen not to attend emergency over the weekend because of the industrial action would attend later this week as their conditions worsened. "If a significant number of beds are closed that creates delays in the system that can place patients at risk," she said.

Victorian Hospitals' Association chief executive Alec Djoneff told the hearing that he was concerned about surgery cancellations as part of the industrial dispute. He said that decisions on who gets surgery were being made in consultation with ANF representatives and doctors.

"It causes patients (care) to be horse traded and negotiated to be exempt from the bans, which in our view is an imposition," he said. "There will be more and more elective surgery cancelled, there will be more and more beds closed ... those in emergency wards will inevitably have delays and disruptions and upset to their lives.''

Impact on Patients 'Unacceptable' - Baillieu

Premier Ted Baillieu hopes Fair Work Australia will end the nurses' strike, calling their closure of one in three beds "unnecessary and unacceptable''. "Obviously, our principal objective is to settle the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement with the nurses but in terms of the application to FWA we want to see the industrial action terminated,'' he said.

"It is in our view completely unnecessary to close beds and to take this action, but we also think the closure of ... one third of the beds in our hospitals is clearly going to have, and is having, an impact on patients and we just think that's unnecessary and unacceptable.''

Patients Suffering as Dispute Rolls on: 

A two-year-old girl with a broken arm had to wait more than a day for treatment after staff abandoned the Casey Hospital emergency department on Saturday night, her mother said.

Angry patients who have waited six months for jaw surgery have been told their surgery was cancelled.

Almost 900 beds have been closed and 150 elective operations have been cancelled at hospitals across the state as the industrial war continues. Stacey, of Beaconsfield, said her partner had taken their two-year-old daughter to three hospitals before she received treatment for a broken arm.

"I don't think my daughter should be used as a pawn for political reasons," she said. "There were no nurses at Casey Hospital. It was chaotic."

Brett Synon, 18, was due to go home from the Austin Hospital last week to wait for a knee reconstruction operation this Thursday. But his week at home was dashed because of nurses' industrial action.
"I got so angry when they told me," he said. "They said if I went home on Friday then my surgery could be cancelled if they couldn't find a bed for me.

HEALTH MINISTER David Davis said "patients will inevitably suffer".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/nurses-may-risk-jail-in-new-strike-20111120-1npdo.html

Nurses May Risk Jail in New Strike
Reid Sexton
November 21, 2011

THE nurses' union says some members may vote to strike again today even though they could face jail or fines after the union agreed to stop its current form of industrial action. The partial back-down yesterday follows two separate rulings from independent umpire Fair Work Australia last week that Victorian nurses ignored as they fought for better pay and conditions.

The workplace bans forced the closure of almost 1000 beds and the cancellation of a reported 659 operations. The Baillieu government said it risked patients' lives, a charge the Australian Nursing Federation denied.

The umpire sided with the government on Wednesday when it banned the protected action because it was affecting patient health. But nurses continued with unprotected action, prompting a second ruling from Fair Work Australia that ordered them to stop immediately.

On Saturday, union secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said nurses were trying to comply with the order but its wording meant union members were not bound by it. This prompted the Fair Work Ombudsman on Saturday to warn that union members were bound by the order and that it would seek a further order in the Federal Court if it was not obeyed, leaving members facing contempt of court charges if they did not comply.

Nurses are seeking an 18.5 per cent pay rise over three years and eight months but have been offered 2.5 per cent a year plus further gains for productivity.

Meanwhile, the Community and Public Sector Union has resumed pay negotiations after the government referred the dispute to the umpire over concerns that vulnerable children had been placed at risk by work bans. The union, which denied the bans put children at risk, agreed to suspend two bans for at least a week in order to restart negotiations between it and Victoria's 35,000 public servants.
With AAP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/nurses-may-risk-jail-in-new-strike-20111120-1npdo.html#ixzz1fK6CmCHo

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://www.nst.com.my/latest/patient-dies-after-rats-chew-off-penis-in-ward-1.23629
[24 December 2011 | last updated at 03:32pm]

Patient dies after rats chew off penis in ward

NEW DELHI: A pneumonia patient is alleged to have bled to death after rats nibbled off his penis in a government-run hospital in Kolkata, reported local media.

The horrific incident happened at the SSKM Hospital on Friday where Arun Sandhukh, 53, was seeking treatment for pneumonia, reported the Asian Age newspaper.

The hospital authorities admitted the prevalent of rat menace in the wards but did not comment further.

"No nurse was found at the scene and he was writhing in pain. His penis had been nibbled by rats," the victim's relative only known as Bishwanath told the media.

Only family members who came to visit Arun discovered him dead in a pool of blood, said the news report.

Medical mishaps in poorly-equipped and overcrowded hospitals in Kolkata, West Bengal's capital, hogged media attention in recent weeks.

Last Saturday, an inebriated hospital cleaner, at the Calcutta Medical College, was reported to have pulled off the oxygen mask of a three-week old baby that led to her death [Pull off the oxygen mask by accident, mediocre practice, or intend?!].

In another appalling tragedy in a private hospital in Kolkata, over 90 people, mostly patients suffocated to death, after fire swept through the building in the early hours of Dec 9. -- BERNAMA


.