I write a broad range of news articles, from investigative pieces, to medical/clinical news, to database driven pieces. I have included links to a small selection of my work on this page, along with pdfs for some front page stories.
Mental illness and drug addiction
Methadone access woes cause despair
IT WAS Christmas Eve and James* was desperate. Even 10 years later, his voice chokes as he remembers his trip from Newcastle to Sydney, a last-ditch attempt to get access to a life-saving methadone program. [more]
Denial of rights in psychiatric treatment
PSYCHIATRIC patients who have been detained involuntarily are being held without independent review for more than a month, and some hospitals are refusing access to lawyers and providing inadequate information to patients and their families. [more]
Treatment for mentally ill 'at risk' in new plan
SERIOUSLY ill psychiatric patients are having their treatment compromised and rights denied by changes which mean they wait up to four weeks for a review of their involuntary detention, a group of psychiatrists and lawyers says. [more]
Males fuel rise of the Ritalin generation
THE use of stimulant drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children has soared, with prescriptions for medications such as Ritalin up by 300 per cent in seven years, research shows. [more] [pdf]
Infection and 'flu
Superbugs besiege NSW hospitals
HOSPITALS are struggling to hold back a wave of deadly infection-causing superbugs, new figures show. [more] [pdf]
Bad weather may be responsible for severe flu season
EXPERTS are baffled by a fourfold increase in the number of people suffering flu - even before the usual peak season in August and September. [more] [pdf]
Vaccination rates spark epidemic fear
WELL-OFF eastern suburbs and northern beaches parents helped drive a recent epidemic of whooping cough because many refused to vaccinate their children. [more] [pdf]
Flu vaccine side effects worse for children than the disease
PUBLIC health experts have called for an independent body to monitor drug safety after it emerged that young children were more likely to end up in hospital because of side effects from a flu vaccine than they were from the disease itself. [more] [pdf]
Obesity
Obesity is now more deadly than smoking
OBESITY has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of premature death and illness in Australia, as experts say the federal government is woefully unprepared for a tsunami of weight-related health problems. [more] [pdf]
Flavour of the month can lead to bad habits
ONCE you eat fat you might never go back, research shows. [more]
Cancer
Experts divided over prostate cancer testing
Each year in Australia more than 800,000 men undergo screening for prostate cancer. But some doctors say the test is pointless, and may even be harmful. Amy Corderoy asks some of NSW's top names in cancer treatment and research what they would do.
Pathologists urge earlier tests for prostate cancer
Corderoy AUSTRALIAN pathologists will recommend that men who want to be tested for prostate cancer should do so from as early as 40, further igniting debate on the controversial test that critics say does more harm than good. [more] [pdf]
MacKillop cancer prayers 'betray a false thinking'
THE celebration of Mary MacKillop's miracle cancer cures is a worrying example of the lack of scientific literacy in the community, says an expert in evidence-based medicine. [more]
Fertility
Legal loophole could identify sperm donors
EXCLUSIVE. MEN who donated sperm anonymously many years ago could have their identities revealed after the surprise introduction of a legal clause giving the government power to demand access to the information.
[more] [pdf]
Accompanying opinion piece.
IVF parents travel overseas to pick baby's sex
A LEADING IVF clinic is helping clients choose the sex of their baby by sending them to an overseas clinic it co-owns, avoiding Australian rules which allow the practice only for medical reasons. [more]
Other
Blowout in cost of health therapies
THE federal government has spent almost $30 million in five years subsidising alternative medical treatments that are scientifically unproved for many conditions and could be dangerous for some patients. [more] [pdf]
Removal of dental funds a disaster, experts say
NSW will face a public health disaster when the federal government removes $340 million of funding for dental treatment at the end of this year, experts say. [more]
$100,000 bill to relieve ambulances stuck outside
NSW HEALTH is spending an average of $100,000 a month to send out relief teams to ambulances stuck outside emergency departments for hours, documents obtained exclusively by the Herald show. [more]
Hospital land sale puts expansion plans in jeopardy
THE state government will sell large chunks of public land around Royal North Shore Hospital - potentially hampering hospital operations and preventing expansion - to gain the equivalent of only three months of hospital operating costs. [more]
Land sale puts mentally ill 'at risk'
MENTALLY ILL patients have emerged as the latest victims of the state government's plan to sell land around Royal North Shore Hospital, with lack of space meaning patients are likely to be forced into crowded, inappropriate buildings.
[more]
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