Hervey Bay Gossip

The Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department is once again serving the local community 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the emergency department resumes full 24 hour service today (Tues) following an innovative agreement between Queensland Health and Aspen Medical.

“The Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department is once again fully staffed, with doctors and nurses working around-the-clock shifts to serve the community.

“Rostered emergency department staff includes: 6 senior medical officers, 9 registrars, 8 junior doctors and 40 nurses.

“I’m delighted the hospital’s acting Director of Emergency Medicine has withdrawn his resignation and will continue to work in the Caboolture emergency department.

Mr Robertson said the resumption of 24 hour service delivers on the Beattie Government’s commitment to the people of Caboolture to fully restore emergency services as quickly as possible.

“The decision to temporarily reduce services at Caboolture Hospital due to the national shortage of senior emergency medical doctors was difficult but unavoidable.

“I acknowledge the difficulties experienced by the community in recent weeks, and would like to thank the people of Caboolture for their patience and understanding during this time,” Mr Robertson said.

In 2002 all birthing services were transferred from Maryborough hospital to Hervey Bay but that decision may now be under review,

State Parliament heard this week of one woman from Maryborough who had to give birth in her car because they were unable to reach Hervey Bay in time.

Back on March 18 the Hervey Bay Gossip reported on a story that appeared in the Brisbane Courier-Mail on shared cellular memories. This is something that seems to be affecting some recipients of organ transplants but is it real or just imagined.

The Gossip decided to turn our specia l projects writer loose on the topic and here is Cellular Memories, his brief overview of what is a very interesting phenomena.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School may have discovered the key to what causes asthma. The body’s natural defenses agains bacteria, viruses and other harmful microbes becomes over-protective in asthama sufferers and so relatively minor irritants can cause an adverse reaction as the body seeks to protect itself.

But researchers now believe that it is not the T cells that respond to those minor irritants that are the real cause of asthma. Instead they now feel that it is a smaller group of cells - commonly known as natural killer T cells that are the real cause.

Unfortunately these cells do not respond well to the steroids found in mots widely used inhalers.

You can read the full story here

Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada have successfuly grown insulin producing cells in a lab and so opened up the possibility of transplanting those cells into the bodies of Type 1 diabetes sufferers.

There is a long way to go but there is now some hope for people who suffer from Type 1 diabetes that injections may one day no longer be necessary.

The full story is here.

Could we be on our way to a cure for Alzheimers?

After some research that has just come out of John Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota we may be one step closer.

Scientists have now found that there may be a specific substance in the brain that causes memory decline and they have now isolated the protein that is the basis for that substance. Research is now underway into the makeup of the protein.

Once the makeup of the protein is understood drugs could be developed to block its effects.

You can read the full story here

Queensland Health announced yesteray that the emergency department at Maryborough Hospital would remain open for at least another fortnight.

Evidently the Minister for Silly Statements didn’t take in what he was told at his morning briefing - or maybe he skipped that all together - because, after the Queensland Health’s spokesperson had made the announcement he was still telling the press that the emergency department would close.

I think Peter is beginning to find that good help is hard to come by.

The State government would have us believe that the current shortage of doctors in hospitals here in Queensland is all the fault of the Federal government. But they fail to explain why over 700 doctors have left the hospitals because they can earn more in private practice … and in other states.

And who is responsible for their wages? The State government of course.

The Minister for Health added little to the debate when he suggested in an interview yesterday that the looming closure of the Maryborough emergency unit would not be as bad as those in other centres because the community knew that it was coming.

Am I the only one who is left wondering how on earth knowing that the unit was going to close makes the closure any better? Surely the Minister for Silly Statements must realise that such comments are completely irrelevant to everyone who lives in Maryborough and especially to those who now have to be transported long distances for emergency care.

Perhaps he doesn’t realise that, perhaps he’s so far off with the fairies that common sense is like a foreign language to him.

On the other hand I’m sure the Opposition is quite happy for him to go on opening his mouth whenever he wants to change feet.

The Hervey Bay RSL is to be commended on their latest community project. It was simple but effective and undoubtedly has some impact on the health of our kids.

Primary school students in Hervey Bay, Torbanlea and Howard have been supplied water bottles courtesy of the Hervey Bay RSL and the important message to the kids is to keep up your fluid intake especially during the hot weather we are experiencing at the moment.

And that is the message for all of us, not just the kids. Keep up your intake of water every day, not just while it’s hot.

Today’s Courier-Mail is carrying a story about a new vaccine developed by scientists in Brisbane that primes a patient’s immune system to identify cancer cells.

Even though the vaccine has been proven in laboratory trials and the first human trials have begun it could be some years before the vaccine is generally available.

edited to remove a dead link