Latest news with #TheAge
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Heart hospital closing operating theatre, beds for ‘fiscal sustainability'
'We've spent almost two-thirds of a billion dollars putting up this facility. It's madness.' A Monash Health spokesman insisted the changes would not be detrimental to patients, and said they were about using hospital resources more efficiently. 'This operational change at the Victorian Heart Hospital aligns services and resources with patient demand, not rumoured budget cuts, and will not negatively impact patient wait times or outcomes, or our team members,' the spokesman said. 'The change will not reduce the number of procedures performed.' But a change impact statement prepared by Monash Health in February this year, leaked to The Age, states it was 'no longer feasible for Monash Health to operate under the current care and establishment model'. 'The closure of one lab will enhance our planned operational improvement work and, in addition, assist in the program being fiscally sustainable,' the document says. 'The total number of half-day sessions will reduce from 44 to 40 public sessions that will be available for procedures.' 'The Victorian government is very interested in having new railway lines, but not in addressing public health.' Dr Roderick McCrae In leaked correspondence to staff, also seen by The Age, Monash Health said the changes were necessary because of Victoria's activity funding caps. Under these arrangements, health services that conduct surgeries beyond their agreed targets are not fully reimbursed for the extra surgeries. 'Currently, the organisation is operating at approximately 106 per cent of its funded target,' the letter, from May, states. Loading 'This means 4 per cent of activity is being delivered without corresponding funding, which introduces financial risk rather than benefit.' Dr Roderick McCrae, Victorian president of doctors' union the Australian Salaried Medical Officers, expressed concerns about the changes, saying they reflected broader issues with the state's overwhelmed health system. 'There is a massive underinvestment in physical and mental healthcare across Victoria,' he said, adding that demand for these services was intensifying due to the state's growing population. 'The Victorian government is very interested in having new railway lines, but not in addressing public health.' Two Victorian Heart Hospital staff confirmed that the hospital's program director, Professor Stephen Nicholls, informed employees late last week that the health service was forging ahead with its plan in coming weeks. The proposed changes have been criticised by doctors working at neighbouring hospitals who regularly refer patients to the specialist facility. One cardiologist, who wanted to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said his hospital had instructed staff to tell patients that they would have to wait longer for procedures at the Victorian Heart Hospital. 'It's terrible from a patient perspective,' he said. 'The longer they wait, the worse their heart gets.' He said the Victorian Heart Hospital was set up to reduce waiting times for heart procedures, and the changes flew in the face of this. 'Now it is a big house with no one in it,' he said. Monash Health says it is well positioned to scale up its services to meet increased demand. State government performance data from the Victorian Heart Hospital shows that the median waiting times for surgery at the Victorian Heart Hospital have deteriorated over the past year. Category 2 patients at the hospital waited a median of 104 days for surgery from January to March 2025, compared with 26 days over the same period last year. In Victoria, category 2 refers to a patient awaiting planned surgery who requires treatment within 90 days. Just 24 per cent of category 2 patients were treated within the recommended 90-day time frame. More than 3000 patients were triaged at the hospital's cardiac emergency department during its first six months of operation, according to a recent annual report. A third cardiology source said they were concerned the changes would contribute to emergency department delays and ambulance ramping because fewer beds would be cleared as quickly. 'It does have a statewide impact,' the source said. The heart hospital overhaul is not the first contentious cost-cutting program at a Victorian health service this year. Just last week, The Age revealed that management at Eastern Health was preparing to cut paediatric services from Maroondah Hospital and relocate specialist staff to Box Hill. The day after The Age 's story, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas fronted the media to confirm she would use her powers to block the proposal – which would have led to children presenting at Maroondah and requiring more than a night's stay in hospital to be transported at least 20 minutes away to another health service. In April, the Royal Children's Hospital scrapped plans to cut a dozen jobs at its Children's Cancer Centre after The Age unveiled the plan in the lead-up to the Good Friday Appeal. A fourth cardiology source described the latest situation at Monash Health as bureaucracy gone mad. 'The department tells Monash Health to find savings. Monash Health tells us they want to save money. But if you speak to the Health Department, they say, 'We wouldn't deem to tell a hospital how to run a hospital.'' An economic impact assessment, presented to the state government in 2017 and later tabled in parliament, stated that the heart hospital would generate almost $400 million for Victoria in 2026 – including $112 million from research and teaching. Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the changes appeared to be another example of mismanagement. 'Labor can't manage money, can't manage health, and it's Victorians who are paying the price.' An Allan government spokeswoman said the changes were a decision made by Monash Health based on demand. 'There has been no budget cuts and there is no impact to frontline care,' the spokesperson said. 'Since we opened Australia's first specialist cardiac hospital in 2023, it has transformed and saved the lives of thousands of Victorians – with cutting-edge telehealth facilities so regional Victorians can connect with specialists and local doctors, no matter where they live.'
The Age
4 hours ago
- Health
- The Age
Heart hospital closing operating theatre, beds for ‘fiscal sustainability'
'We've spent almost two-thirds of a billion dollars putting up this facility. It's madness.' A Monash Health spokesman insisted the changes would not be detrimental to patients, and said they were about using hospital resources more efficiently. 'This operational change at the Victorian Heart Hospital aligns services and resources with patient demand, not rumoured budget cuts, and will not negatively impact patient wait times or outcomes, or our team members,' the spokesman said. 'The change will not reduce the number of procedures performed.' But a change impact statement prepared by Monash Health in February this year, leaked to The Age, states it was 'no longer feasible for Monash Health to operate under the current care and establishment model'. 'The closure of one lab will enhance our planned operational improvement work and, in addition, assist in the program being fiscally sustainable,' the document says. 'The total number of half-day sessions will reduce from 44 to 40 public sessions that will be available for procedures.' 'The Victorian government is very interested in having new railway lines, but not in addressing public health.' Dr Roderick McCrae In leaked correspondence to staff, also seen by The Age, Monash Health said the changes were necessary because of Victoria's activity funding caps. Under these arrangements, health services that conduct surgeries beyond their agreed targets are not fully reimbursed for the extra surgeries. 'Currently, the organisation is operating at approximately 106 per cent of its funded target,' the letter, from May, states. Loading 'This means 4 per cent of activity is being delivered without corresponding funding, which introduces financial risk rather than benefit.' Dr Roderick McCrae, Victorian president of doctors' union the Australian Salaried Medical Officers, expressed concerns about the changes, saying they reflected broader issues with the state's overwhelmed health system. 'There is a massive underinvestment in physical and mental healthcare across Victoria,' he said, adding that demand for these services was intensifying due to the state's growing population. 'The Victorian government is very interested in having new railway lines, but not in addressing public health.' Two Victorian Heart Hospital staff confirmed that the hospital's program director, Professor Stephen Nicholls, informed employees late last week that the health service was forging ahead with its plan in coming weeks. The proposed changes have been criticised by doctors working at neighbouring hospitals who regularly refer patients to the specialist facility. One cardiologist, who wanted to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said his hospital had instructed staff to tell patients that they would have to wait longer for procedures at the Victorian Heart Hospital. 'It's terrible from a patient perspective,' he said. 'The longer they wait, the worse their heart gets.' He said the Victorian Heart Hospital was set up to reduce waiting times for heart procedures, and the changes flew in the face of this. 'Now it is a big house with no one in it,' he said. Monash Health says it is well positioned to scale up its services to meet increased demand. State government performance data from the Victorian Heart Hospital shows that the median waiting times for surgery at the Victorian Heart Hospital have deteriorated over the past year. Category 2 patients at the hospital waited a median of 104 days for surgery from January to March 2025, compared with 26 days over the same period last year. In Victoria, category 2 refers to a patient awaiting planned surgery who requires treatment within 90 days. Just 24 per cent of category 2 patients were treated within the recommended 90-day time frame. More than 3000 patients were triaged at the hospital's cardiac emergency department during its first six months of operation, according to a recent annual report. A third cardiology source said they were concerned the changes would contribute to emergency department delays and ambulance ramping because fewer beds would be cleared as quickly. 'It does have a statewide impact,' the source said. The heart hospital overhaul is not the first contentious cost-cutting program at a Victorian health service this year. Just last week, The Age revealed that management at Eastern Health was preparing to cut paediatric services from Maroondah Hospital and relocate specialist staff to Box Hill. The day after The Age 's story, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas fronted the media to confirm she would use her powers to block the proposal – which would have led to children presenting at Maroondah and requiring more than a night's stay in hospital to be transported at least 20 minutes away to another health service. In April, the Royal Children's Hospital scrapped plans to cut a dozen jobs at its Children's Cancer Centre after The Age unveiled the plan in the lead-up to the Good Friday Appeal. A fourth cardiology source described the latest situation at Monash Health as bureaucracy gone mad. 'The department tells Monash Health to find savings. Monash Health tells us they want to save money. But if you speak to the Health Department, they say, 'We wouldn't deem to tell a hospital how to run a hospital.'' An economic impact assessment, presented to the state government in 2017 and later tabled in parliament, stated that the heart hospital would generate almost $400 million for Victoria in 2026 – including $112 million from research and teaching. Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the changes appeared to be another example of mismanagement. 'Labor can't manage money, can't manage health, and it's Victorians who are paying the price.' An Allan government spokeswoman said the changes were a decision made by Monash Health based on demand. 'There has been no budget cuts and there is no impact to frontline care,' the spokesperson said. 'Since we opened Australia's first specialist cardiac hospital in 2023, it has transformed and saved the lives of thousands of Victorians – with cutting-edge telehealth facilities so regional Victorians can connect with specialists and local doctors, no matter where they live.'
The Age
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Age
Rising youth crime allowed to fester on Labor's watch
'We cannot arrest our way out of this. It's that simple … The whole arrest, charge, bail, remand, court system, justice system, youth detention, can't be just the answer.' When Victoria Police's Sergeant Tem Hawkes said these words to The Age two years ago, rising youth crime was already a long-standing problem. As we reported in our youth crime investigation in 2023, adolescents and early teenagers (aged 10-14) were the fastest-growing cohort of youth offenders involved in violent crime. At Werribee Police Station, Hawkes and his fellow officers were part of the Embedded Youth Outreach Program (EYOP), in which youth workers accompanied police on patrols to try to give young people a pathway out of crime. The program was not born out of woolly idealism but out of a hard-headed assessment by all involved that traditional law-and-order responses weren't working, and could in fact be making things worse. Its interventions with young people reduced their reoffending, even as rates of offending beyond the program continued to rise, according to a Swinburne University evaluation that forecast 1000 fewer offences on an annual basis as a result. This week's news that youth crime is reaching record levels comes against a very different backdrop. The state government, struggling with budgetary woes in other areas, has cut back funding to EYOP and the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, which provides the program with social workers, and returned to pouring money into prisons. All the while there is real community concern about rising crime rates, especially youth crime, with neighbourhoods increasingly turning to private security and home-surveillance devices. From Labor promising to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 – a first step to dealing with the youngest offenders outside the setting of jail, which is proven to turn many of them into adult criminals – we now have Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny measuring success by the doubling of young people on remand since last year. Loading From its reversal on changing the age of criminal responsibility to the about-face on bail laws to the recent hop, skip and jump to a machete ban after the Northland shopping centre brawl, the Allan government gives the impression of making up its responses on the run, after scanning the headlines and considering only the political optics.
The Age
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Age
For all its faults, Israel has been a scapegoat
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. MIDDLE EAST Patrick Kingsley's article, (' Israel has shifted Middle East dial ', 20/6), is refreshingly incisive in that it effectively challenges the narrative that Israel has been an imperialistic tormentor of Arab nations. As he points out, over a period of 20 years the region's only democratic state has, relative to its potent military strength, acted with restraint, its containment policy having allowed Hamas in 2006 to control the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah to operate in southern Lebanon and Iran's dreadful mullah-led regime in concert with the malign Revolutionary Corps to exist relatively unhindered. Meanwhile, Arab nations characterised by a mix of quasi-feudal, oil-rich and misogynist potentates have been viewed as lacking in agency; when, in reality, they have oppressed their populations terribly. In the case of Iran, a nation with a proud Persian history, the Western world has largely ignored the terrible consequences of its Islamist rulers' brutal oppression of a sophisticated populace since the late 1970s. Trump's dithering over whether to act decisively against a regime that has through its proxies been the scourge of the Middle East for too long says it all. Israel, for all of its faults, has for too long been a convenient scapegoat. Jon McMillan, Mt Eliza Trump has his finger on the trigger Samuel Colt, the American who made the mass production of guns viable, had a famous quote: ″God made man, Colt makes them equal″. US President Donald Trump with his statements appears to be channelling this notion with his threats of aggression towards Iran. History indicates that negotiating with a gun held to your head is a pointless exercise, while popular wisdom indicates that you should never point a gun at someone unless you are prepared to shoot. Therefore, the person with the gun to their head should always assume the gun isn't loaded. The gun holder has only two options – either pull the trigger or capitulate. Is Trump willing to pull the trigger and plunge America and the Middle East into chaos? The rest of the world should hope not. Peter Roche, Carlton Australian troops must be kept out of any conflict The late Tom Uren was a mentor to our current prime minister. Uren was a pacifist who decried the call to arms to pointless conflicts. I sincerely hope that his influence on Anthony Albanese lingers in his thinking to prevent the possibility of sending our young people to the Middle East at the behest of the US. Peter Taylor, Midway Point, Tas Does Iran have weapons or not? Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying – since 2012 – that Iran is only weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon. I'm not sure which timetable he's checking but surely they would have had several by now? And have possibly used them? Doesn't this bring one to the conclusion that maybe they don't? David Jeffery, East Geelong Ask Australian-Iranians Amin Saikal has written that there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear bomb (Opinion, ″ Few believe Iran has nuclear weapons. We can't afford to repeat the Iraq War lie ″, 19/6). However, there is plenty of evidence that it has enriched uranium well above the level required for peaceful purposes. Also, it has given many millions of dollars of weapons to its proxy militias in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. These militias could then use it to make ″dirty″ radioactive bombs. Saikal seems to be taking the line that this is like the war in Iraq, for those non-existent weapons of mass destruction. This could actually be read as a call for the left in the West to support Iran, a totalitarian regime that has not even bothered to provide its citizens with bomb shelters. Iran has been calling for ″Death to America!″ and ″Death to Israel!″ from its inception. There are plenty of Iranians now in Australia who have good reasons to fear this regime. Ask them what they think. Pia Brous, Armadale Lack of moral authority In his opinion piece condemning Israel's strikes on Iran's weapons-making capabilities, Amin Saikal (20/6) – as a counterpoint to US support for Israel – cites 'Russia and China [who] have condemned Israel for starting the war (with Iran)', as supposedly credible moral authorities. Is he serious? These are two brutal regimes: One actively waging an unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine, the other engaged in the systemic oppression of Uyghurs and Tibetans. Invoking them to moralise on Israel's actions against Iran – a regime that funds and arms terrorist proxies across the Middle East, and openly professes its ambitions to annihilate Israel – is astonishing. That Saikal relies on the support of such regimessays more about the weakness of his argument than it does about Israel's right to defend itself against a brutal dictatorship hell-bent on its destruction. Jonathan Bradley Slade, Toorak Deal making How about this deal? Trump tells Israel to stop bombing and Iran to stop retaliating for two weeks so Iran can come to the table whilst not under attack. If Israel doesn't stop, then the US doesn't help Israel and it is on its own. If Iran doesn't stop or doesn't come to the table then the US will join in the war. Surely, this gives both parties something to think about and is not so one-sided? Aren't good deals about negotiation, give and take with a win/win for both parties, not win/lose. Mira Antonioum, Brighton
Sydney Morning Herald
13 hours ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Government to consider changes to gas appliance ban
'Victorian gas is the cheapest in the nation. The longer we can rely on Victorian gas rather than imported gas, the better for Victoria's industrial sector.' The government has received submissions from industry, environmental advocates and other groups. Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Jones told The Age that the building electrification proposal 'threatens the foundation' of the industry. 'With approximately 4800 automotive businesses across the state relying on gas for their daily operations, this policy could force many of our members to either relocate interstate or shut down entirely,' he said. 'We're looking at the real possibility of vehicle parts, trailer manufacturing and other industry moving offshore permanently – taking Victorian jobs with them.' Victorian Trades Hall Council, Environment Victoria and the Victorian Council of Social Services have all made submissions supporting the plan. In March, VCOSS chief executive Juanita Pope said electric homes were better for people's health and that renters and low-income earners would need help to make the transition. 'Prioritising support for these households will mean that all Victorians can enjoy the health benefits and bill savings of electrification,' she said at the time. Loading Laundry Association of Australia chief executive Luke Simpkins said if the electrification program was implemented as proposed, it would eventually lead to higher costs. 'Everything will get passed through where possible,' he said. The debate comes as information provided by ExxonMobil to the Australian Energy Market Operator in April, as part of regular communication on the state of its assets, shows its Turrum Phase 3 project has revised its estimated capacity upwards. The project, which features a series of new Bass Strait wells, was announced in March, and the data shows it could now deliver 229 petajoules of gas over its lifetime starting from 2027, up from 137 petajoules originally expected. The numbers are preliminary and will require more work to determine precisely how much gas will be delivered from the project. But the upgrade raises the prospect that forecast shortages of gas in Victoria and New South Wales could be further delayed. When the project was announced, it factored into AEMO's calculations that pushed looming gas shortfalls back from 2025 to 2028. Energy and climate ministers have been meeting for months to map out a way to shore up supply in Australia, with discussions including giving AEMO the power to be a long-time buyer of gas through import terminals. AEMO's executive general manager of system design, Merryn York, said AEMO was waiting for further information on the Turrum project to see if it should update its advice for the national gas system. 'Additional information has been provided to AEMO's Gas Bulletin Board on gas reserves at the Turrum gas field, part of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture (GBJV) between Esso Australia and Woodside Energy,' she said. 'We're awaiting on further analysis from both parties to determine when the additional reserves could be produced and the impact this may have on other GBJV fields and projects.' An Esso spokesperson said their anticipated production remained consistent with AEMO's road map. Loading 'Esso Australia regularly reviews remaining gas reserves and periodically updates the Australian Energy Market Operator of any material changes,' they said. 'While depletion of the Gippsland Basin is inevitable, projects like Turrum Phase 3 will ensure Bass Strait continues to produce gas for the domestic market past 2030.'
