Made in China drugs — not the illegal ones Chinese crime gangs distribute unlawfully in Australia but the ones Big Pharma outsourced to China to make even bigger bucks.  Big Pharma didn’t reduce the cost of their medicines they got made for 50¢ in China, instead ripped off everyone worldwide and kept prices sky-high to increase their already mammoth profits.

When you have your next prescription filled at your local chemist, ask where the medicines are manufactured.  Decline the ones Made in China — they are usually the big known brands.  Go for a generic brand but make sure it is not made in China.  It is an interesting exercise and requires little effort in asking a question.  Go for Australian made at all times.

Support Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and go for generic brands not made in China.

D E M A N D   A U S T R A L I A N   M A D E

ESSEN, GERMANY —

A German doctor is facing manslaughter charges over two deaths, reportedly of COVID-19 patients. Police cited him as giving medication to hasten the death of one patient and to “avert further suffering.”

Two patients, aged 47 and 50, were terminally ill when a senior doctor allegedly administered medication that led to their immediate deaths, police said Friday.

Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the two deaths amid reports that the patients were being treated for COVID-19.

The senior doctor, 44, employed since February at the University Hospital in Essen city in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), was arrested on Wednesday, charged with manslaughter on Thursday and remained in custody, city police said.

The hospital said suspicions about the deaths on November 13 and 17 had prompted it to immediately notify prosecutors and remove the doctor from duty.

Assisted death is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany in light of the legacy of the 6 million Jews killed and experimented on by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. 

Read full story in Deutsche Welle (DW):

German doctor arrested on suspicion of killing coronavirus patients

MELBOURNE — The Victorian Government has so far refused to reveal how many people have contracted coronavirus in health settings, such as hospitals and rehabilitation centres.

But from the general information available, it’s clear there are at least 25 people like Ms Heywood who entered a facility to be treated for an unrelated illness and became infected.

At least four of them have died — three of them cancer patients at The Alfred Hospital.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) said a report with the final figures would be released in the coming weeks.

Key points:

• Christina Heywood is one of 17 patients who caught coronavirus while staying at a Frankston rehabilitation centre
• Three months on she is still suffering the lingering effects of coronavirus
• A health expert says better infection control in hospitals is the key to controlling the spread of the virus to patients

Read the read full story by ABC’s Jessica Longbottom:

Patients who caught COVID-19 in health settings demand official figures, as experts claim cases were preventable

SYDNEY — An elderly dementia patient acquired a myriad of cuts and bruises while in hospital – and now her family are demanding answers.

The 83-year-old woman received treatment at Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Hospital, north of Sydney, before her family collected her last Thursday, 1st October 2020.

When they picked her up, she had bruises running up her arms, across her face and on her neck.  She had skin falling off her forearm.

It took five days for a representative of the hospital to answer the family’s questions over what happened, saying she suffered two falls.

“I was broken-hearted, shocked, just couldn’t believe the state she was in,” daughter Tracey McCarthy told 7NEWS.

However, with bruises around her neck and blackened eyes, the family and others are struggling to understand how this happened.

“Bruises around the neck? I mean what’s that from?” Lorraine Long from the Medical Error Action Group said.

Police, however, say there is no evidence any sinister took place.

Detectives interviewed staff and the woman herself – but she was not of much help given she didn’t remember sustaining the injuries at all.

THIS IS AFTER HOSPITAL TREATMENT!

For more of 7NEWS and The Daily Mail see:

Family of elderly dementia patient demand answers over relative’s bruises in hospital care

Family horrified after 83-year-old dementia patient suffers injuries at a Sydney hospital

DUBBO, WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES —

Speaking up and reporting failures gets a doctor sacked after revealing thousands of test results were never followed up at a major NSW hospital last year leading to the prescription of wrong medications, missed broken bones and the death of a baby girl, a doctor who worked there has alleged.

When the doctor tried to raise the alarm after discovering the unchecked results at Dubbo Base Hospital, he was accused of being “unsupportive” of colleagues and sacked, the Sydney Morning Herald can reveal.

“During that week I had personally gone through perhaps 2000 unchecked results,” the doctor said in an email to management, which was leaked to the Herald.  “This is an absolutely extraordinary number.”

The revelations put Dubbo Base Hospital back in the spotlight after a Herald investigation in May uncovered a death and a series of troubling near misses at the flagship facility and a second hospital within the Western NSW Local Health District.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is expected to come under renewed pressure after dismissing the need for an inquiry into regional NSW hospitals, as sources said the state opposition was close to securing the numbers for an inquiry examining the Herald’s revelations.

READ MORE OF CARRIE FELLNER’S STORY IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 12.09.2020:

Baby’s death leads to extraordinary discovery of 2,000 unchecked results at hospital

BRISBANE, Queensland —

Theft of drugs from hospitals for for Queensland Police to investigate, not internal hospital mechanisms.

Thousands of highly addictive medicines and drugs at Queensland’s busiest hospitals have gone missing or have been stolen, with some staff facing disciplinary action.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital are the two hospitals involved.

The list of unaccounted-for medication across the Metro North and Metro South districts around Brisbane includes numerous high-level and restricted drugs like Fentanyl, Oxycodone and Methadone.

The documents were obtained under Right to Information and reveal thousands of medical supplies went missing between January and September 2019.

Read more the ABC News story:

Addictive drugs missing from Queensland’s Metro South and Metro North health service

DUBBO, WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES –

‘Incredibly distressing’: Minister intervenes over patient death and bungled records

Carrie FellnerAugust 7, 2020 — 12.02am

Bungled medical records given to the family of a man who died following treatment in a western NSW hospital mistakenly contained confidential notes belonging to another patient, listed the wrong surgeon and were missing a key blood report.

These mistakes come amid revelations a ministerial review team investigating the patient’s death interviewed his family the day before their reporting deadline and were then denied requests for more time to “adequately investigate” concerns raised at the meeting.

Mr Wells died after he was discharged from Cobar hospital against his family’s wishes last year. His treatment was branded “Third World” in May by his daughter, Jamelle Wells, a Sydney-based journalist.

While Mr Wells was in Dubbo Base Hospital he went without food or water for three days because it was too expensive to roster staff on, in a ward that ran out of morphine and Panadol, his family said.

The state of his medical records was slammed as a “shambles” by Lorraine Long of the Medical Error Action Group.

The Western NSW Local Health District disputes the claims made by Mr Wells’ family.

Mr Hazzard ordered the health district to conduct a review of the patient’s experiences and make its report available to him upon completion.

The Herald understands the review is being carried out by Dr Clare Skinner, the director of emergency medicine at Hornsby Hospital, and Dr Melanie Berry, the clinical director of quality and safety at the Western NSW Local Health District.

Mr Fahy “sincerely apologised” for an administrative error that meant the wrong doctor was listed on Mr Wells’ medical records.

He said the reason blood transfusion notes were missing was not clear and would be reviewed.

There is no suggestion Mr Fahy was personally responsible for any error made in the record-keeping or Mr Wells’ treatment.

Mr Wells’ family were astonished to later discover that one page of the medical records belonged to another elderly patient who lived in Narromine in Western NSW.

Ms Long of the Medical Error Action Group, who made the discovery, said the bungle was an unlawful breach of patient privacy.

“The state of Mr Wells’ records was a shambles, particularly noting missing records, gaps in records, records out of chronological order and procedures done without notes being recorded,” she said.

She accused Dubbo Base Hospital of “robbing the dead” by charging more than $600 for the records and said the usual fee was $30.

A spokesperson for the Western NSW Local Health District said it had investigated the incident, spoken to the Narromine man’s carer and apologised.

Read more of Carrie Fellner’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald:

‘Incredibly distressing’: Minister intervenes over patient death and bungled records

SYDNEY – What does it take to get Australian authorities / governments to act and deal with this scandal? They are deaf, dumb and blind to it.

The UK public inquiry into tainted blood / contaminated blood / infected blood will examine Australia’s involvement in an international health scandal in which victims were historically infected by blood contaminated with deadly hepatitis C and HIV.

Australian victims and advocates have made submissions to the UK inquiry.

Australia is not interested in its own victims whatsoever.

Read more of The Age / The Sydney Morning Herald’s story by Carrie Fellner:

‘Children have died’: Britain to probe Australia’s infected blood scandal

MARYBOROUGH, VICTORIA – Fresh concerns have been raised about the safety of Maryborough District Hospital, about 170km north-west of Melbourne in central Victoria, after a mother described her son’s birth there as “torture”.

Key points:

• A mother has gone public for the first time about a harrowing birth at a regional hospital that left her with ongoing health issues
• She says she felt “completely guilty” about not speaking up sooner and worries standards have not improved
• Data shows higher rates of severe tears in mothers at regional hospitals, compared to those in metropolitan areas

Chelsea Richardson, 33, was left with faecal incontinence for almost two years after a forceps delivery without pain medication at the Maryborough District Health Service, north-west of Melbourne, in 2014.

“I wasn’t a person anymore. I’d lost my identity as a human who could feel pain,” Ms Richardson says. 

“I felt tortured.”

Ms Richardson sued the hospital for negligence in 2017. Her lawyers argued the intervention during the birth was unreasonable and that hospital staff failed in their duty of care.

She was paid an undisclosed sum in a settlement with the hospital, but she says she has not had any contact since and has not seen any evidence to indicate that standards have improved.

Read more the ABC’s Charlotte King and Andy Burns’s report:

Victorian mother describes birth at Maryborough District Health Service as ‘torture’

SHREWSBURY, ENGLAND – Hundreds more cases of potentially avoidable baby deaths, stillbirths and brain damage have emerged at an NHS trust, raising concerns about a possible cover-up of the true extent of one the biggest scandals in the health service’s history.

The additional 496 cases raise further serious concerns about maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust since 2000.

The cases involving stillbirths, neonatal deaths or baby brain damage, as well as a small number of maternal deaths, have been passed to an independent maternity review, led by the midwifery expert Donna Ockenden. They bring the total number of cases being examined to 1,862.

They will also be passed to West Mercia police, which last month launched a criminal investigation into the trust’s maternity services. Detectives are trying to establish whether there is enough evidence to bring charges of corporate manslaughter against the trust or individual manslaughter charges against staff involved.

The extra 496 cases had not emerged until now because an “open book” initiative led by the NHS in 2018 asked only for digital records of cases identified as a cause for serious concerns. The vast majority of the 496 further cases were recorded only in paper documents.

Read more and more of The Guardian’s story:

Hundreds more potentially avoidable baby deaths found at Shropshire NHS trust