Local Brief

Courses are expected to kick off in the second half of the year at a Perth hub (as well as locations north, south and east of the CBD); three locations in the Kimberley (Broome, Kununurra and Fitzroy Crossing) four locations in the Pilbara (Karratha, Hedland, the Shire of Ashburton and Shire of East Pilbara) while planning is underway for the Mid-west, Wheatbelt, Goldfields, South-West and Great Southern.

Joondalup expansion

Christmas came early for the Joondalup Health Campus in December with the announcement the WA government intended to invest $96 million to provide 30 mental health beds, two new operating theatres (including a cardiac catheter laboratory), an extra 90 inpatient beds and six new critical care beds. Also due for upgrade is the emergency department with 12 more bays and the establishment of an Urgent Care Clinic to treat drug and alcohol-affected ED patients. Parking will expand by 362 new bays. Construction is due to begin in mid-2020 with the expanded car park and the ED first cabs off the rank. The entire build is expected to be completed by July 2025. The $96 million commitment brings the estimated total cost of the expansion project to $256.7 million, of which the Commonwealth has committed $158 million. The researchers kept blood sample tubes taken from the women at room temperature (usual clinical practice), on ice (research grade) and in FC Mix tubes. They found the sugar results didn’t change in the blood samples that were put in FC Mix tubes, which were easier to use than putting samples on ice to stop sugar results from dropping. The research team is now planning to meet the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia to discuss updating its guidelines for blood sample collection for sugar testing.

Medications on record

The Australian Digital Health Agency and Webstercare have launched a new clinical document within My Health Record (MHR) to reduce medication-related problems, especially in the elderly. The Pharmacist Shared Medicines List (PSML) is a consolidated list of medicines prepared by a pharmacist and uploaded to a patient’s MHR. The list will compile both prescription and non-prescription medicines, including over-thecounter and complementary medicines, such as vitamins and herbal remedies. The move was in part to combat the growing number of medication-related admissions to hospitals, which numbered about 250,000 last year.

Teller of Tales

Changes to testing?

A/Professor Julia Marley from UWA’s Medical School said it was possible that two out three women with gestational diabetes, and who lived in rural and remote areas, may have been missed due to problems with the collection tubes. “To get correct sugar results, the blood tubes need to be put straight on ice until they are tested and testing needs to happen within one hour of the last blood sample taken but this is not part of usual practice in Australia,” she said. “Instead blood samples are put in tubes that contain an additive (fluoride) to stop cells in the blood sample from using sugar. However, this takes four hours to work so when the blood gets tested there is less sugar. We wanted to explore this further to see if usual practice affects sugar results and if we are missing women with gestational diabetes.” We alerted readers to the release of the third edition of Dr John Murtagh’s Cautionary Tales, with the added legal input from GP Dr Sara Bird, who is also MDA National’s executive manager of professional services. It came to our attention by the publisher that the small commentary might have been misconstrued when we alluded to the “odd mistake” or two as being those made by Dr Murtagh in composition. This is, of course, definitely not the case. His ‘cautionary tales’ continue to be invaluable and entertaining reading and learning for doctors, students and the general public alike.

Read this story on mforum.com.au

Dr Neale Fong has become the new CEO of Bethesda Health Care after being its executive chair for 11 years. He took up his position last month.

In December, the WA Department of Health called for EOIs for new members of the boards of PathWest and Health Support Services. HSS provides information and communication technology, financial, procurement and supply and employee and payroll services to the health sector, areas of intense scrutiny over the past 18 months.

Curtin Medical School has a new dean replacing its foundation dean, Prof William Hart. Prof Sandra Eades will become the first Indigenous Dean to an Australian medical school. Prof Eades joins Curtin from the University of Melbourne, where she was Associate Dean of Indigenous Maternal and Child Health and Professor at the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Still with Curtin University, it celebrated the official opening of its new Midland Campus, which will act as a base for Curtin Medical School students in their fourth and fifth year of study and students studying other Curtin University health science disciplines. The State Government committed $22 million in funding and reserved land to support the establishment of the new campus. It ties in nicely with increased training involvement by SJGHC.

Dr Mark O’Brien has been appointed to the board of St John of God Health Care. Dr O’Brien is a co-founder and medical director of the Cognitive Institute, an organisation which helps health care leaders and their teams with enhanced non-technical skills, such as communication and leadership.