Month: April 2009

Quickhit: a test case for decriminalisation of abortion in QLD

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Tegan Simone Leach, 19, is believed to be the first woman charged in Queensland in nearly 50 years for organising her own miscarriage and is facing up to 14 years in jail.

Medical practitioners in Queensland who apply for a special license can legally prescribe the exact same drug that Ms Leach used to abort her pregnancy, but the old laws against abortion have not been reformed to take note of the reality that people can obtain the same drug for themselves.

Emergency Department “Did Not Waits” – what’s the real story?

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This appeared in yesterday’s West: “Urgent ED cases walk out before treatment”

More than three patients needing urgent attention leave the busy emergency departments of Perth’s major hospitals every day without being treated, new figures show. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information laws show that last year, 7215 patients across all levels of urgency attended the emergency departments at Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner, Fremantle and Princess Margaret hospitals but left without being seen by a doctor.

They included 48 category 2 or “emergency” patients, typically including suspected heart attacks, and 1184 category 3 or “urgent” cases, which can include head injuries and major bleeding or fractures. Twenty of these patients were children.

This article looks at some important questions, but it fails to illuminate us on what the answers might be – and the information presented is a little misleading.