Latest edition of Australian Medicine out now
News stories in this week’s Australian Medicine of interest to general practice include:
- two articles about how GPs are seeing more patients and treating more problems than ever, and about how Medicare spending on general practice is value for money;
- the Federal Government’s plan to deregulate university fees will push the cost of medical degrees up to $250,000, discouraging low income students from becoming doctors and skewing the medical workforce toward higher paid specialties;
- experimental Ebola medications;
- the private health insurance industry and arrangements that could compromise and doctor-patient relationship and crimp access to care;
- the ageing GP workforce;
- mentally ill patients are increasingly turning to GPs for help;
- the incidence of whooping cough has surged amid worrying signs that the effectiveness of a widely-used vaccine is wearing off; and
- patients taking a commonly prescribed antibiotic, amoxicillin, are at increased risk of developing diarrhoea and thrush, adding to concerns about the extent of its use.