1 September 2010

50% of Canberrans women!!!! Katy Gallagher says so!

| johnboy
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I don’t mind there being a women’s hospital. The day I can drop a sprog I might request a re-naming, but for now it’s fine.

On the other hand Katy Gallagher does seem to be excluding the hairier gender somewhat with today’s media release on her new strategic framework to facilitate women’s access to health care services and information.”

“ACT Health recognises that women and girls have specific needs and challenges throughout their lives and women are required to balance a number of commitments simultaneously, very often to the detriment of their health status,” Ms Gallagher said.

“By incorporating a gender perspective in health and health care, the aim is to ensure that women are not disadvantaged by virtue of their gender and that women are encouraged to actively participate in health decision making.”

A number of preliminary strategies are listed in the framework to guide the work necessary for achieving the objectives. A women’s health advisory network for the ACT will be established to oversee the implementation of the framework.

“Consumer representatives will be encouraged to partner with ACT Health to raise awareness of issues that are at times not clearly visible or understood in the public domain,” Ms Gallagher said.

“Planning for the delivery of health services to women of the ACT will ensure that the specific health issues experienced by women and girls are considered and addressed at these times of considerable changes occurring in the health sector,” she said.

In 2009, it was estimated that the ACT female population was 177,892, with women making up just over 50% of the total ACT population.

I particularly liked the reminder that there are indeed many women in our community.

Given than men already die much younger than women in Australia (Five years younger according to wikipedia) it does beg a question:

Why is the ACT Government entrenching male health disadvantage?

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colourful sydney racing identity said:

” hmmmn. you lost me at ‘a mole at a christening’,
I really have no idea what that post is about.”

….makes perfect sense to me… y’know…kind of in line with the general tenor of Katy G’s original proposition really..logical n’all that

WonderfulWorld10:10 pm 10 Sep 10

hmmmn. you lost me at ‘a mole at a christening’. I really have no idea what that post is about.

I’m with you, what’s that garble? and how can you go to hospital recently for 4 years?

colourful sydney racing identity8:13 am 09 Sep 10

cleo said :

colour sydney
racing identity

Most people on here go on just about anything, their like a mole at a christening, it’s very obvious that the men cough, are upset that they can’t have their gonads inspected, all they have to do is have a blood test, as most people should have at least once a year, and women do need these improvements for women’s health, the women’s health is below par compared to Sydney or Melbourne, I recently went to The Women’s North Shore hospital, as I had no diagnoses here in Canberra, this went on for 4 yeaars,I found them to be competent and knew their business, unlike the specialists here in Canberra or GP’s for that matter, so yes I do hope we have decent specialists here eventually for women.

hmmmn. you lost me at ‘a mole at a christening’. I really have no idea what that post is about.

colour sydney
racing identity

Most people on here go on just about anything, their like a mole at a christening, it’s very obvious that the men cough, are upset that they can’t have their gonads inspected, all they have to do is have a blood test, as most people should have at least once a year, and women do need these improvements for women’s health, the women’s health is below par compared to Sydney or Melbourne, I recently went to The Women’s North Shore hospital, as I had no diagnoses here in Canberra, this went on for 4 yeaars,I found them to be competent and knew their business, unlike the specialists here in Canberra or GP’s for that matter, so yes I do hope we have decent specialists here eventually for women.

enfoldeadgrrl3:09 pm 03 Sep 10

Jim Jones said :

Also worth pointing out that, following the media release on women’s health, there was one directed squarely at men’s health which included the ‘visit a damn GP’ message.

Thanks for pointing that men’s health message out. http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/media.php?v=9918

When will the government start sending me my cheques, dammit? I work hard for the future of our health system.

Good point.

Also worth pointing out that, following the media release on women’s health, there was one directed squarely at men’s health which included the ‘visit a damn GP’ message.

enfoldeadgrrl2:51 pm 03 Sep 10

Jim Jones said :

A few years ago there was a decent national push to get Australian males to visit their GPs regularly for a checkup (males are more likely to ignore many health problems they have rather than get it checked out, and most males don’t bother with regular checkups), but it was pretty short lived … and hampered by the fact that there aren’t enough GPs to go around even without most males heading in for a regular checkup.

Rather than blaming a shortage of GPs or nostalgically remembering that worthy ad campaign, I think we need to recognise the problem: that there are not enough partners, friends and colleagues who are willing to pester men to go to the damn GP when they obviously need to, let alone for regular check-ups.

The government should really increase funding for the under-promoted “just make a damn appointment and GO!” program. Under this program, undercover agents within the community chivvy blokes into doing sensible things to look after their health.

Long-term, it will lead to healthcare savings: less pressure on the system from men who could have identified and corrected health issues early, instead of waiting until they’ve developed something chronic, serious, or gross.

Leinna said :

Google “Uterine prolapse”…..

There was an old woman
Who lived in a shoe
She had so many children
Her uterus fell out

cleo said :

colourful sydney
racing idenity

Bebcause there is nothing more to say on the subject, just the ‘boys’ having sour grapes lol
and I will say what I like within reason, don’t need some hitler telling what I should or shouldn’t write!

Godwin!!!

colourful sydney racing identity7:59 am 03 Sep 10

cleo said :

colourful sydney
racing idenity

Bebcause there is nothing more to say on the subject, just the ‘boys’ having sour grapes lol
and I will say what I like within reason, don’t need some hitler telling what I should or shouldn’t write!

Hitler? Wow, what a fantstic rebuttal. It must have taken you a long time to put together such a convincing argument.

There is actually a lot more to say on the subject, as many posters above have. Resorting to childish slanging like ‘suck it up boys’ does not advance the argument for these services. If you really think there is nothimg more to say than ‘suck it up boys’ you are no better than the people whinging about the ‘femocracy’.

Sepi I’m with you, the men can’t stand women getting a little bit more than them, and you can take that both ways Lol

John 87-no1 Hit a sore point did I? lol

colourful sydney
racing idenity

Bebcause there is nothing more to say on the subject, just the ‘boys’ having sour grapes lol
and I will say what I like within reason, don’t need some hitler telling what I should or shouldn’t write!

Google “Uterine prolapse”…..

Leinna said :

There is a hospital for men. It’s called ‘The Canberra Hospital’ 🙂

Also, the prostate doesn’t fall out when you’re old.

Think on that 🙂

Ok. I give up. What falls out of old women when they are old?

Seriously.

I’m stumped. Is there something going on with older women that I am not privy to?

There is a hospital for men. It’s called ‘The Canberra Hospital’ 🙂

You don’t need a full specialist service to manage the prostate – it’s a single organ with limited function, and only two problems:
1) It gets too big, so you see a urologist
2) It gets cancer, so you see an oncologist, or a urologist, or both

The training program for an O&G is 6 years, which should tell you something about how complex the female reproductive system is. And a brief read of the recent review of the women’s health service at The Canberra Hospital should give you an idea about how overworked the staff they have already are, and hence how many woman-specific health problems there are in our community.

And re: never knowing the horror of a prostate examination–
– a finger is one centimetre in diameter
– a fully opened speculum (for a pap smear) is about four
– a baby’s head is ten
– *and* if you get a nasty tear, you get a finger up the bottom anyway

Also, the prostate doesn’t fall out when you’re old.

Think on that 🙂

@#20
More beer and less skittles please..

Hells_Bells7412:44 pm 02 Sep 10

If I was allowed in a boardroom, too right I’d take care of all the positions… might have to borrow a karma sutra book though 😉

And I experience mega-superior healthcare in the ACT, soley due to my X chromosomes – yay me!

Men are not accustomed to discrimination, so when they perceive any sniff of it, their hackles go up like bulldogs.

Sadly experiencing mild discrimination does not seem to bring on any sympathy at all for discrimination experienced by disadantaged groups in more meaningful areas.

(gollygosh – a press release about women!! Never mind, you guys can still fill 98% of high paid boardroom appointments)

Yes it is true, I personally occupy only 90% of boardroom positions, but I’m still young.

Stating that there will be a women’s health initiative doesn’t necessarily mean that there WON’T also, at some stage, be a men’s health initiative or strategy. Does it? When there are announcements of strategies for other areas of community need, it doesn’t necessarily imply that no other areas of community need will get anything at all ever again – does it? Women have a different set of medical needs to men; they require different types of medical specialists. Children also have a different set of medical needs to grown-ups; they require different types of medical specialists. Katy’s announcement targets one type of strategic health program for one particular group in our community (women). I don’t think she is stating or even implying that nobody else will get anything. I am absolutely amazed at the level of vitriol.

p1 said :

johnboy said :

The issue isn’t the hospital, it’s the strategy in the absence of a mens health strategy.

I’ve got to agree. Specific services are clearly needed which are gender specific – obstetrics and prostate etc. But why is there not strategy to provided the male specific services?

We’re probably all in furious agreement about this point.

A few years ago there was a decent national push to get Australian males to visit their GPs regularly for a checkup (males are more likely to ignore many health problems they have rather than get it checked out, and most males don’t bother with regular checkups), but it was pretty short lived … and hampered by the fact that there aren’t enough GPs to go around even without most males heading in for a regular checkup.

johnboy said :

The issue isn’t the hospital, it’s the strategy in the absence of a mens health strategy.

I’ve got to agree. Specific services are clearly needed which are gender specific – obstetrics and prostate etc. But why is there not strategy to provided the male specific services?

“Men do die younger but it is generally because of their own stupidity or to put it more mildly risk taking behaviour.”

Brought on by a misguided attempt to impress women. Its biological. Men only have themselves to blame for their biological inclination to put women first. Women and children to the doctor first. Makes sense to me.

This is just politicians saying nothing new so as to be seen doing something that already exists. Win win.

Gotta start somewhere.

The time to make a fuss would be when something actually eventuates out of this – what have we got right now that you don’t – a press release?

while listening to wales farting

you been listening to tom jones again, jethro?

Hells_Bells749:34 am 02 Sep 10

I thought it was going to be a women’s and children’s hospital, thus making it even more in favour of the population’s needs?

Had to laugh Justin, oh the horror lol

The issue isn’t the hospital, it’s the strategy in the absence of a mens health strategy.

neanderthalsis9:19 am 02 Sep 10

Lets face it fellas, a specific Mens Hospital would without a doubt be the most efficient hospital in the health service. Mainly because it would only see three patients a year, and those only because their wives had nagged incessantly.

As mentioned above, men are a bit like an old commodore, relatively simple beasts. But we do have a tendency to keep on driving until it is well and truly buggered before we decide to seek some expert help.

cleo said :

Suck it up ‘boys’

Your stupidity astounds me.

justin heywood8:58 am 02 Sep 10

Leinna said :

Women have extra things that can go wrong during their life.
– menstruation
– pregnancy
– different cancers that are frequently more serious than their male equivalent
– eg: breast cancer vs prostate cancer
– eg: ovarian cancer vs testicular cancer
– menopause (men just keep on making testosterone, women stop making oestrogen which leads to numerous health problems)

Therefore it makes sense to have a women’s health service. End of argument?

End of argument? I don’t think so.

-Who has to suffer the irrational behaviour of their women on a monthly basis? Men
-When a child is born, who has to go out in all weather and buy cigars? Men
-You women think having a pap smear is bad. You will never know the horror of a prostate examination.
-You think an endless supply of testosterone is a good thing? Might be OK if you look like Brad Pitt, not so good if you’ve got the face of a Chernobyl fireman.

It’s not all beer and skittles on the other side you know.

colourful sydney racing identity8:51 am 02 Sep 10

cleo said :

Suck it up ‘boys’

Nice to see a well reasoned argument on this subject. Instead of inflaming people and making this about some gender war, why not go into some detail about why it is a good idea? Which, by the way it is.

PB has gotten on his predictable high horse about political correctness gone mad and failed to recognise that there are groups in society that have different needs and this hospital will go some way to address a shortfall. However rather than take issue with that you have to resort to a high school type response that will only solidify the view amongst the ignorant that this is a boys v girls thing.

Well done.

colourful sydney racing identity8:28 am 02 Sep 10

Men do die younger but it is generally because of their own stupidity or to put it more mildly risk taking behaviour. When you here of p platers wiping themselves out driving drunk or at excessive speed pay attention to how many of them are male.

Mully anyone?

Skidbladnir said :

Higher life expectancy for females is a direct result of modern obstetric care

I thought we had settled this last month, Skidbladnir. Obstetric care does nothing to help women, who should all give birth in their homes while listening to wales farting.

Women have extra things that can go wrong during their life.
– menstruation
– pregnancy
– different cancers that are frequently more serious than their male equivalent
– eg: breast cancer vs prostate cancer
– eg: ovarian cancer vs testicular cancer
– menopause (men just keep on making testosterone, women stop making oestrogen which leads to numerous health problems)

Therefore it makes sense to have a women’s health service. End of argument?

Suck it up ‘boys’

I’ve been doing laps around Garran looking for the men’s hospital, the girl must have given me the wrong directions..

Indeed I think men get the raw end of the stick when it comes to health care. One thing that always fires me up is the issue of cancer. Look at how many special programs there are for females, in particular breast cancer, yet when you look at the statistics more men get cancer than women and more people get prostate cancer than get breast cancer. Yet where is the focus and the bulk of the cancer funding?

Below is a link to a site with some stats from 2005. You will see that in that year 56158 Australian men got cancer of which 16349 got prostate cancer. 44356 women got cancer and of them 12170 had breast cancer.

http://www.aihw.gov.au/cancer/index.cfm

I-filed said :

Men can pay for their health care with their $1 million lifetime pay advantage over women.

Excellent idea. So while my wife has been off work on half pay over the past 12 months to bring up our son (a combination of maternity leave and long service leave at half pay) I guess I’ve been stupid to have been using my higher wage to help pay our mortgage, pay our bills and buy groceries? Apparently all along I should have been squirilling my ill-gotten gains away to guard against the day when I’m diagnosed with prostate cancer. I’m pretty sure that if that day comes, I’d still be proud to know that my footy and cricket teams constantly trot out in pink to support breast cancer research, while the diseases which target men are forgotten about.

That’s not sarcasm btw…I think you’d find that a majority of men would rather support research that helps keep the mothers of their children alive, while hoping for the best for themselves. I dunno if that’s worth $1 million over a lifetime or not…hopefully I never need to find out.

enfoldeadgrrl8:49 pm 01 Sep 10

“Cows” works too… :-p

Aren’t ob/gyn services already aimed pretty much exclusively at women?

Cows?
Stupid predictive text, I meant ‘boys’.

I-filed said :

Men can pay for their health care with their $1 million lifetime pay advantage over women.

Sadly, we blew most of it on scotch and cigars … what little was left over ended up with some funny looking strippers (I’m not even sure they were women, one of them had an adam’s apple).

However, mentally substituting ‘man’, ‘men’ or ‘cows’ into the press release does show that it is prettymuch boilerplate text…

Men can pay for their health care with their $1 million lifetime pay advantage over women.

dtc said :

Then again, us men are simple machines so you can service us with a few basic tools, like an old commodore. Whereas women are the modern computer driven vehicles, completely baffling and non-fixable without the right hi-tech analysis.

You saying women are high-maintenance?

Why is the ACT Government entrenching male health disadvantage?

Because its the norm for the entire species?
Seriously, the only places that women die before men (on average) are those five bastions of health and social harmony: Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Niger.

Historically, childbirth was a leading cause of death for women, and men survived longer than women.
If a woman was lucky enough to survive their child bearing years and made it to age forty, she was far more likely to outlive men born in the same year.
Higher life expectancy for females is a direct result of modern obstetric care, which is an incidental field in overall medical care.
(When we learn to do things like use soaps on hands prior to surgery, or sterilise scalpels instead of “wiping the dirt off”, everybody benefitted, but women started surviving child birth, and seeing age forty).

Lets not advocate going back to the middle ages for the sake of making the stats look better, or we might as well work in middle management.

I actually have no issue with some gender specific programs, including health. But I ran through that press release substituting ‘man’ (or ‘male’) for every reference to woman/women and, you know what, it sounded just as plausible and valid. Right down to the population statistic.

Then again, us men are simple machines so you can service us with a few basic tools, like an old commodore. Whereas women are the modern computer driven vehicles, completely baffling and non-fixable without the right hi-tech analysis.

Pommy bastard4:55 pm 01 Sep 10

“ACT Health recognises that women and girls have specific needs and challenges throughout their lives and women are required to balance a number of commitments simultaneously, very often to the detriment of their health status,” Ms Gallagher said.

And of course men and boys do not, they sail through lives with nary a care in the world, monotasking always.

Utter PC bullshit.

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