Homeostasis

The pandemic has revealed the cracks in our public health system are gaping holes, with many health workers saying it has reached crisis point. From primary care, to emergency departments and climate change, our guest, GP and writer Dr Melanie Cheng discusses the key health issues that need addressing this election.

Within a matter of weeks, Australia has gone from having one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 infections to one of the highest per capita in the world. Today we speak with Richard Denniss, the chief economist at The Australia Institute on how we got here and how we can get out of this crisis.

Today we're speaking with Dr. Justin Cain who is the first Aboriginal doctor to be accepted onto the vascular surgery training program in Australia. We chat about Justin's journey as well how First Nations medical students and doctors can be better supported.

When Dr Shona Kambarami was in her final year of medical school in Australia, she did an OBGYN rotation in a New Orleans hospital. It was there where she saw first hand the health disparities for Black patients and how a predominantly white medical staff and a privatised health system influenced the way patients were treated. Throughout Dr Kambarami's medical and writing career in Australia, The U.S and The UK she has sought to create equitable and culturally safe treatment for migrant, refugee and First Nations women. Dr Kambarami sat down with medical student Nanditha Hareesh to discuss the politics of pregnancy and how her medical school fell short in preparing doctors for the diverse needs of antenatal and postpartum care.

When Dr Neela Janakiramanan first heard about the Covid crisis unfolding in India, it wasn't necessarily the crisis itself that surprised her— she'd seen covid spikes in other parts of the world with unvaccinated populations— what was different, was Australia's response. Dr Janakiramanan speaks with MedicGuild's Nanditha Hareesh about the legacy of Australia's response to the crisis in India and its impact on global vaccine equity and migrant rights. Dr Janakiraman is a reconstructive plastic surgeon as well as a writer and advocate for health equity.

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will come into effect on January 22, 2021. We speak with Dr Ruth Mitchell who was a recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on this campaign. Dr Mitchell is a neurosurgeon and co-chair of the Australian chapter of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

In this episode we speak with Dr. Ingo Weber about the connections between climate change and health and what doctors are calling on the government to do to address this crisis. Dr. Weber is a qualified GP and an anaesthetist as well as a lecturer on the health impacts of climate change at Flinders University and The University of Adelaide. He's also a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia.

In this episode we speak with Dr. Ngaree Blow about the successes and challenges for improving the health and well-being of First Nations communities. Dr. Ngaree Blow is the Director of First Nations Health for medical education at the University of Melbourne and a board member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association.

As the COVID-19 crisis rapidly unfolds, doctors are calling on the Federal government to release all immigrant detainees to avoid a public health catastrophe for detainees and the broader community. For the past 30 years Australia has adopted a policy of mandatory immigration detention. While people can be imprisoned for a number of reasons, for example, overstaying a visa, or breaching visa conditions, by and large this policy disproportionately impacts asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat. This is despite the fact that seeking asylum without authorization is legal under the UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory. Australian detention facilities have long come under criticism for their human rights violations and prosecutors with the International Criminal Court recently said that Australia's offshore detention facilities constitute crimes against humanity. There's also been well documented cases of abuse, unrest and even deaths. The Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (Asid), the Australian College of Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) and Doctors for Refugees have all said that immigration detention centers are ripe for Covid-19 transmission. In this episode we speak with Dr. Barri Phataford, a Sydney based GP who is the president and founder of Doctors for Refugees about what the COVID-19 crisis will mean for asylum seekers in Australia both inside and outside of detention.