There is a tendency in health journalism to bring out old information like it is some startling revelation that has only just been discovered. The medical profession themselves are partly to blame for this phenomenon because we tend to redo studies often, to make sure we got it right the first time. While this is [...]

Helen Clark was right.
When asked in 2005 if she wanted to see smacking banned, Helen Clark replied.
“Absolutely not. Well, I think you’re trying to defy human nature”.
Today a poll was released that confirms Clark’s observation. Apparently 86% are keen to see Section 59 reinstated in some way. I find it very hard to believe that these people [...]

Now there is a leaked memo from SanLu alleging that they were attempting a cover-up on the 11th August, nine days after the board was notified that there was melamine in SanLu’s milk.
The memo recommended Sanlu “do anything to pacify victims, and accept all they want to keep them silent for at least two years”.
The [...]

One of the reasons I started blogging was because I was tired of the completely hysterical way that anything medical was reported. I’m sure other professional disciplines are horribly misreported in order to gain a story, but there is something about health that makes it a real hot-button for journalists. Nowhere was that more obvious [...]

More great news for the embattled milk company, part-owned by Fonterra - lethal bacteria have been found in some of its milk powder. 
The Gansu Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision in northwest China issued an emergency notice saying San Lu’s formulas for older babies contained enterobacter sakazakii as well as melamine, the Lanzhou Morning Post reported.
Described [...]

It seems that the fight between the diagnostic labs fighting for the Auckland DHB contract will go all the way to the Supreme Court. 
Deal-making for Auckland’s lucrative community laboratory service has been thrown into fresh turmoil by a Court of Appeal decision, but the case may go to the country’s highest court.
Three judges yesterday released [...]

Front page news today in the Herald is the story that  ”a highly contagious patient was left undiagnosed for weeks in Auckland City Hospital.” It turns out that this is another patient with TB which is not, and never has been, highly contagious. The article refers to “an extremely rare, aggressive and contagious form of [...]

One of the first posts I ever did was on after hours fees. I haven’t changed my opinion in two months (has it only been that long?). I still think after hours funding should be directed at emergency departments and that A&M clinics should be allowed to charge whatever the market will bear. However, yesterday, [...]

There is a gross scene in the movie Hannibal, where Anthony Hopkin’s character, Dr Lechter, carves pieces out of his (sedated) psychotherapist’s brain and fries them, prior to eating them. Apparently, according to some Swedish scientist, you can do this with your cell-phone too. At least, high use of a cell phone by children is [...]

When I first saw the National billboard for health I thought “Bugger, even I could do better than that”. So I did. Well, maybe. See what you think. Comments welcome, but I am an amateur, so go easy on the technical stuff.
 
Update:
At the suggestion of Sea Monkey at Kiwiblog, I have removed the [...]