Joe Biden has ‘an aggressive form' of prostate cancer
The diagnoses was made after President Biden experienced urinary symptoms and his office has said it's an aggressive form of the cancer.
Prostate cancer is Australia's most commonly diagnosed cancer, with 26,000 new cases annually.
ABC NewsRadio's Sarah Morice spoke with Anne Savage, CEO of Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Health unions in pay talks with SA government speak out about ongoing healthcare challenges
Standing outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency department, nurses' union secretary Elizabeth Dabars did not mince her words. Three-and-a-half years after Labor was elected on a promise to fix the ramping crisis, one of the state's key health unions had a message for the South Australian government. "We are sick and tired of being placated and told that people are working on things," Ms Dabars said, flanked by a group of members in scrubs. The union this week went public with concerns over what it calls "internal ramping" — the practice of caring for patients in makeshift areas because no bed is available. Asked about what had prompted her to speak out about the issue, Ms Dabars said she had spent months trying to work with the government behind closed doors — to no avail. "We have tried every single avenue humanly open to us to resolve this concern," she said. Health Minister Chris Picton fired back, responding "we don't accept that terminology from the trade union" — while SA Health claimed it was standard practice to care for patients in alternative spaces while they wait for a bed. The nurses are not the only health workers to have aired their concerns publicly in recent weeks. The unions representing doctors and paramedics have also criticised the government over its handling of issues including ramping, hospital overcrowding and safety. Ambulance Employees Association secretary Paul Ekkelboom this week raised issues of ramping and resourcing in the wake of the death of a man involved in a car crash at Sellicks Hill. SA Salaried Medical Officers' Association (SASMOA) chief industrial officer, Bernadette Mulholland, has highlighted safety concerns over working conditions inside hospitals. In most cases, a union boss calling out the government is hardly remarkable. Yet, for much of Labor's term, health unions faced criticism for keeping too low a profile as ramping hours climbed and the system struggled to cope under enormous strain. The relative silence was most stark in the case of the Ambulance Employees' Association, which had played a key role in helping to turf out the previous Liberal government and get Labor into office. The union helped the then-opposition to humanise the ramping crisis — raising the cases of victims and speaking out about the toll ramping takes on paramedics. "Ash the Ambo" became the face of the campaign, issuing a powerful warning to "vote Labor like your life depends on it". Following the election, the union faced accusations it was failing to hold Labor to the same standard it had the Liberals. Even as ramping continued to reach eye-watering levels, former secretary Leah Watkins showed a more sympathetic approach to the new government — insisting in interviews it would take time for Labor's funding boost to alleviate pressure on the system. Mr Ekkelboom was installed last year as union secretary, thoroughly defeating Ms Watkins after promising to re-establish the AEA's "political independence" and take a "stronger stance" on ramping. The increasing union loudness comes at a time where doctors, nurses and paramedics are all in the midst of pay negotiations, some of which are threatening to turn hostile. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation said discussions with the government are continuing, while the doctors have already held a stop-work meeting and are planning a strike later this month. SASMOA wants 10 per cent annual pay increases over the next three years — a demand the government has called untenable. Bosses have been quick to shut down any link between their recent criticism and the ongoing pay talks. "Let me be very clear. This is nothing to do with that," Ms Dabars said on Wednesday. Mr Ekkelboom said it would be disrespectful to make any comment on his union's wage negotiations while he was speaking out about the death of a patient. But public commentary is one of the most powerful tools at the unions' disposal — and one some are using now more than at any other point in this term of government. It's been a quieter couple of weeks for the Health Services Union, which earlier this month reached a deal with the government on their new enterprise agreement. Eight months out from the next state election, Labor is widely considered by politicians and pundits to be overwhelming favourites to win another term in office. With a popular premier and an opposition struggling to land punches, there seem to be only a small handful of issues with the potential to inflict real damage on Labor between now and March. Whether the difficulty the government has faced to deliver on its promise to fix the ramping crisis is one of those potential banana skins remains to be seen. Public concern around the state of the health system is not at the same level it was in 2022, when Labor was swept to power on the back of its ramping pledge. But the state's health unions hold the power to change that — and, whatever their motivation, they're looking ready to use it.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Federal government will face pressure to add dental to Medicare, amid 'overwhelming' wait times
Queensland pensioner Don Batty has always looked after his teeth, but age has taken its toll. These days, the former NSW Police officer finds it hard to look in the mirror. "I'm 80 years old now and my teeth have started to disintegrate," he told the ABC. The Toowoomba resident is missing multiple molars, which makes it hard to chew food. His dental issues affect his diet, speech and confidence. He has been living like this for nearly two years because he cannot afford to visit a private dentist. "It would be totally impossible. "There is no way I can save enough money to spend the thousands that are required to go to a private dentist." Mr Batty is among 140,000 Queenslanders waiting for non-urgent public dental care. More than 10,000 patients have been added to the queue in the past year. "I've been waiting now for about 21 months," Mr Batty said. "We've got a very, very good dental service, but it's overwhelmed. There's no way they can deal with the number of people in this city and surrounding towns with the resources they've got." Data obtained by the ABC shows patients in every state and territory can expect to wait months, if not years, for non-urgent public dental care. Around one-third of Australians are eligible for the free or low-cost public dental services, which are delivered by state and territory governments with some funding from the Commonwealth. There are variations in how states and territories record and report their data, but the figures are similar. Queensland Health says it is "desirable" to provide a patient with general dental care within two years. In New South Wales, the "maximum recommended waiting time" for patients seeking non-urgent routine care is around 18 months. The Victorian Health Department said the average wait for the state's non-urgent public dental services was 12.4 months. The most recent data available shows the longest wait times were in Tasmania and the Northern Territory. In Tasmania, 50 per cent of patients removed from the waitlist in the past 12 months had been there for more than 2.5 years. In the NT, the median wait time for a first appointment from 2023 to 2024 was also around 2.5 years, according to data compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The AIHW also found about 10 per cent of patients in Tasmania and the NT waited nearly five years for their first appointment. The shortest waiting times were in Western Australia, where last year patients received non-urgent care after an average of 5.4 months. In South Australia, the average wait was seven months. No average or median wait list data was available for the ACT. Each state and territory government told the ABC that patients in priority groups or those requiring urgent care did not have to wait for treatment. Australian Dental Association president Chris Sanzaro said the issue was adding pressure to other parts of the health system. "Around Australia there's nearly 90,000 potentially preventable hospitalisations each year due to dental disease. "There's a lot of links between poor dental health and overall health. The one link we know is very strong is between diabetes and poor dental health." Grattan Institute health program director Peter Breadon said the public dental system was underfunded and "overwhelmed". "Of all the funding that goes into dental care in Australia, about 60 per cent comes out of the pockets of patients, in the form of fees," he said. "To put that in perspective … it's nine times the share that comes from patients when you see a GP." As the new federal parliament prepares to begin its work this week, the Greens are vowing to ramp up pressure on the government to add dental to Medicare. Despite being nearly wiped out in the lower house at the federal election, the minor party is returning to Canberra with the sole balance of power in the Senate. This means the government will rely entirely on its support to pass legislation when the Coalition is not on board. Greens Health spokesperson Jordon Steele-John said he would be "pulling every lever as an MP" to get dental added to Medicare. "We are excited and energised as a party to get to work," Mr Steele-John said. When asked if the Greens would refuse to back bills if the government didn't agree to add dental to Medicare, he did not rule it out. But he added his "starting point" would be to work with people across parliament to create a consensus on the issue. Mr Steele-John described the beginning of the new parliamentary term as "an opportunity to strike a new tone". "To signal clearly you are willing and excited to work with people of goodwill to get something done for the community," he said. The Greens have previously indicated they will take a less hardline approach in the upcoming parliament, after losing three lower house MPs at the federal election, including then-leader Adam Bandt. In the previous term, the party used its senate numbers to block a bill designed to ease the housing crisis, as it pushed for more rights for renters. New leader Larissa Waters said the Greens wanted to be "firm but constructive" in the new term. The minor party campaigned heavily on the issue of adding dental to Medicare ahead of the election, and was encouraged by comments previously made by Health Minister Mark Butler. Mr Butler told the ABC in March: "Our party would love to bring dental into Medicare at some stage. We've got that as part of our platform commitment." When pressed over the possible timing this week, Mr Butler said in a statement the government's immediate focus was on strengthening Medicare and rebuilding general practice. "I can't say to people that in the short term there's going to be any change to dental," he said. "But I do recognise in the longer term there's a lot of ambition for dental to be covered by Medicare." The federal government has previously indicated it cannot yet add dental to Medicare due to the cost. Policy experts and dentists argue dental services could be added to Medicare in stages, to keep costs down. The Australian Dental Association claims the first step should be a Medicare-funded dental scheme for seniors. "It would be somewhere between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion a year," Dr Sanzaro said. "A means-tested scheme, with a capped amount available to every individual every couple of years." The Grattan Institute estimates it would cost $8 billion a year to gradually add dental services into the Medicare scheme over a decade. "Obviously you can't just turn on a switch and put that much money into the system," Mr Breadon said. Some children are already eligible for free or low-cost dental through the Child Dental Benefits Schedule under Medicare. Around 3.5 million children have received treatment through the scheme since it started in 2014.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Neurosurgeon Greg Malham accused of 'sexist' and 'unprofessional' behaviour by colleagues and patients
It started out as one of those odd stories you sometimes see in the rough and tumble of a federal election campaign — a viral video of a man tearing down a female politician's campaign corflute, talking about burying the body under concrete. The vision of a surgeon smashing Kooyong independent Monique Ryan's election sign into a rubbish skip and saying "always gotta bury the body" went viral in a week when multiple women were allegedly murdered by men. But for many of the former colleagues and others who spoke to Four Corners for our investigation into this man, the video was telling — not just about his attitudes about women, but also the position he occupied as a surgeon at the apex of the private hospital world. A surgeon who left behind uncomfortable nurses, crying radiographers, patients who thought him like an egotistical character out of Mad Men, and a devastated, grieving family. Greg Malham was a renowned neurosurgeon at Epworth ― Melbourne's largest private hospital. When the corflute story broke in Melbourne's The Age newspaper, Epworth's CEO, Andrew Stripp, issued an unusually robust statement to staff, saying the hospital was "deeply concerned by the unacceptable behaviour displayed by the surgeon" and he personally found the content of the video "abhorrent". Within weeks, Greg Malham resigned from the hospital. Mr Malham was encouraged to report himself to the medical regulator, AHPRA, which commenced an investigation, but he is still operating. An investigation by Four Corners has discovered a string of people from Mr Malham's past who were not shocked by the video because they had seen what they described as sexist and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace by the neurosurgeon. "I wasn't surprised, because that's how exactly how he would carry on in theatre," said Katie, a former Epworth nurse who worked with Mr Malham in theatre and in the hospital's recovery rooms, who told Four Corners she found his behaviour with women "uncomfortable". Maddison, a former Epworth radiographer who also worked with Mr Malham, said he and other surgeons at the hospital had a "God complex". "They did see themselves as more important and better than anyone in the room," Maddison said. The phrase "God complex" was often volunteered to Four Corners about Mr Malham, whom many of his former colleagues thought was a prime example of the problem with some egotistical surgeons in the private hospital system. Former patient Annie Sargood and her husband Randall Cooke described Mr Malham as "probably the most egotistical person [they had] ever met". "[He was] absolutely, completely arrogant, like a character out of Mad Men," Ms Sargood, who had a spinal fusion operation with Mr Malham, told Four Corners. Mr Cooke said there were "flirtatious innuendos" in the way the surgeon behaved with his wife. "He was so up himself, he was so full of himself," Mr Cooke said. Four Corners has spoken to many staff who worked with him at Epworth and before that, at The Alfred public hospital, who felt uncomfortable about his behaviour. Recovery and theatre nurse Katie, who left Epworth in 2021, remembered often feeling uneasy around him because of the "inappropriate" way he would speak — this was something volunteered by many other nurses Four Corners spoke to. "He'd come into recovery and say, 'hey spunky'," Katie recalled. "[He] could be quite crass with some of the remarks he made, particularly around women. "He would make a lot of the nurses in recovery quite uncomfortable when he came in to hand over his patient." One memory that stood out for her was how, she said, he would "sometimes put his hand on your back and just leave it there that little bit too long". "There was sort of a vibe in the recovery room … 'Oh, here comes Greg. Let's get ready to feel awkward'," Katie said. She said that when she worked in Mr Malham's theatre, he would "really let loose in terms of his inappropriate behaviour". "Comments about women, about their tits ― just really crass, vulgar comments," she said. Maddison is a former Epworth radiographer who left the hospital largely because she could no longer bear working with surgeons in theatre. She said the neurosurgery department where Mr Malham worked was particularly toxic. "Radiographers would be crying because of the way that they'd been spoken to by the [neurosurgeons]," Maddison said. "A big reason for that stress was the stress that was put on us in theatre and just being scared every day." Two weeks before she left Epworth in January 2021, Maddison made a written complaint to human resources at the hospital about Greg Malham's behaviour in theatre. She said the radiography department was understaffed, and radiographers were often stretched so thin they would be late to theatre. On one of the occasions she was sent to Greg Malham's theatre, she said her heart sank because she assumed from previous experience he would get angry. She said he was "standing at the end of the corridor just glaring at me the whole journey up to the theatre". She wrote to HR that when she walked in, "Mr Malham … was yelling 'f***, f***, f***! This is f***ing ridiculous, having 12 people standing around doing nothing while we wait for an X-ray'." She wrote that Mr Malham then "aggressively un-scrubbed and stormed past me". "I felt uncomfortable, intimidated, scared, stressed and embarrassed," Maddison, who was worried she would make a mistake in the theatre, wrote. "I completed the imaging and left the theatre and burst into tears." Epworth's chief executive, Professor Andrew Stripp, who was not at the hospital at the time of these allegations, cannot speak about Greg Malham for legal reasons. But he does have a message for surgeons in his hospital more generally, saying they should be "mindful of the environment you are working in, be mindful of your team". "If people have felt uncomfortable about raising concerns or addressing issues, I'm very sorry to hear that," Professor Stripp told Four Corners. "It's essential that we create an environment at Epworth HealthCare where people can come to work, feel confident that they can deliver the care that they trained [for], that they aspired to do, and feel safe in doing so. "And when that's not living up to expectations, that they can take action, that they can be heard, and that those issues that are raised will be taken seriously, the concerns will be respected, and they will feel safe in doing so." The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has strict guidelines for its fellows that go beyond their technical skills in the operating theatre. The College's Surgical Competence and Performance Framework says it is "poor behaviour" for surgeons to "repeatedly display a negative attitude towards junior medical staff, nurses and other health care professionals". It also says it is poor behaviour if a surgeon "berates and humiliates others" or "makes unwelcome comments on the appearance on the appearance of others". The College put out a statement condemning Mr Malham's behaviour in the corflute video after it received multiple complaints. RACS president, Professor Owen Ung, agreed with Four Corners that his behaviour in the video may also breach other competency guidelines, including those that said it was poor behaviour if a surgeon "lacks awareness that certain behaviours are disrespectful towards others" and "participates in or makes derogatory jokes." "We made it clear that we denounce any of that sort of behaviour," Professor Ung said. "Surgeons are held to high standards, as they should do in the community, and we take it very, very seriously. Neurosurgeon Ruth Mitchell, who worked at The Alfred with Greg Malham, preferred not to say what her thoughts were about him, but she did comment more generally about what she saw as a very sexist surgical culture in the field of neurosurgery. Of the roughly 300 neurosurgeons in Australia, only 16 per cent are women. "What I worry about is like a generation of female surgical trainees … who've had to do the emotional labour of tone policing or, you know, behaviour managing, managing up their seniors who really aren't behaving professionally," Dr Mitchell said. "The impact that has on the rest of your learning. You're meant to be learning how to operate. You're meant to be learning how to manage complex conditions." All of the 25 neurosurgeons at Epworth are men. When Andrew Stripp was asked if this was acceptable in 2025, his response was a very curt "No". "We'd like to see that improved," Professor Stripp said. "It is not OK," said Dr Mitchell. Yumiko Kadota is now a cosmetic physician, but she did several rounds of training in neurosurgery and left surgical training because of the toxic, male-dominated culture. She posted on Instagram about the corflute video being reminiscent of the "toxic dude-bro culture" she had witnessed in her training and was flooded with responses from "disgusted" women, including some who had worked with Greg Malham. "And the stories are sad, but not at all surprising to me just because I have seen similar behaviours in the past," Dr Kadota said. "It's a typical locker room chat where you can get away with saying misogynistic things to the other lads in the locker room and get away with it because there's no one holding you accountable. "And when you work in a male-dominated speciality like neurosurgery, there aren't that many people around who put you in your place." Warning: The following sections contain references to suicide. There was an incident that current and former Epworth staff repeatedly raised in relation to Dr Malham: his relationship with a 34-year-old nurse at the hospital who suicided in September 2014. The nurse's name was Laura Heffernan, and in her suicide note, she blamed Mr Malham for her decision to take her life. The note formed part of a coronial brief that has not been made public until now — the entire brief was released to Four Corners because the Victorian State Coroner accepted it was in the public interest. Apologising to her parents, Laura wrote in the note that she loved Greg with all her heart and could not "believe it was all lies and fake". Laura had been contacted by Mr Malham's ex-wife to say that he had been sleeping with both of them and lying to them. "I feel disgusting & used & humiliated & ashamed," Laura wrote. "I don't think the pain of how someone could be so hurtful & f***ed up & totally made me think they loved me & wanted a life with me will ever go away. It just hurts so much." Laura was very popular at the hospital, and Epworth nurses who worked with her felt uncomfortable about the power dynamic between the star neurosurgeon and the much younger nurse. Some told Four Corners that Mr Malham was inappropriately persistent in his attentions. "We found out that Laura was with Greg, and honestly, it was a little bit of a shock given his reputation," Katie said. "She was quiet, you know, quite dainty and just a nice sort of girl. And he was this outspoken, powerful, sort of obnoxious man." Katie remembered how, before they started dating, he would check the roster to see what time Laura was starting and finishing and leave chocolates for her, which none of the other surgeons would do. Another former Epworth nurse, Ruth, who was close friends with Laura and was a key coronial witness because she was one of the last people at the hospital to speak to her alive, said that in the early stages, Laura found Mr Malham's attentions "quite claustrophobic". "She was really professional and really good at what she did, and I think she probably felt that that, at times, was a bit intense," said Ruth, who left the hospital in 2015. "I think a lot of us were thinking, 'why is she with him?'" Katie remembered. Ruth, Katie and the other nurses noticed a sudden change in Laura after the relationship with the powerful neurosurgeon abruptly ended — Ruth remembers hugging her and recoiling because she was so thin. "And following that time, she just became really depressed," Katie said. "She'd lost a lot of weight. She pretty much looked as if she'd lost the will to live." The coronial brief shows Laura discovered Greg Malham cheated on her with the second of his now four wives and lied to both of them for months. She sent her girlfriends a distressed email: "I wanted you girls to know how f***ed up Greg is … I spoke to his ex-wife today … She knew that we were both being totally duped. Greg's told me lie after lie and is unable to give the truth when face to face … She thinks he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder … I'm so ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated … He is such a bad person. How can you think you can know someone when they can be that evil?" A supportive doctor offered to accompany Laura to complain to Epworth management about Greg Malham, but Laura told the doctor words to the effect of "no, he's too powerful". In September 2014, eight months after she started dating Greg Malham, Laura pulled up next to a park near her home in Thornbury in Melbourne's inner north and killed herself. "The last text she sent to me was just hugs and kisses," a tearful Ruth said. "As time went on, I was just angry, I suppose, that he could treat someone as lovely as Laura the way he treated her." Laura's mother, Christine Heffernan, said she did not understand why her daughter loved Greg Malham so much, but that Laura had blamed her decision to kill herself on him. "So, to me, to this day, it's just a waste of a beautiful life," Ms Heffernan said. Greg Malham never contacted the Heffernan family after Laura's death. He never responded to investigating police, despite repeated requests and the fact that he was not under suspicion. "People were angry, really angry at him," Ruth said. Katie was one of the nurses who refused to work with Greg Malham after Laura's death, and she remembered how one nurse left Epworth because of it. "One of the nurses sort of spoke up for Laura, and there were some interviews with her, with management, and soon after, she had left," Katie said. "Her concerns were Laura's mental health was deteriorating as a result of being with Greg, and she felt like there were some people that needed to be more accountable for that. There should have been a bit more of an intervention before she died. Many people told Four Corners that these types of surgeons brought in so much money for hospitals that management was loath to intervene when there were red flags about their behaviour. "They're the top of the food chain," said Ruth. "They are seen as almost untouchable. "I think in that culture, it's expected that you are going to get treated not well at times — you know, yelled at, you know, spoken down to." Professor Stripp can't address Greg Malham's treatment of Laura for legal reasons, but he had a personal message to any man in a position of power at the hospital who behaves inappropriately. "I think it important to understand such behaviour is unacceptable at Epworth Healthcare and will become known and we will address it," Professor Stripp said, agreeing that this meant "zero tolerance". The staff who worked with Greg Malham over many years are speaking out because they say change is desperately needed. "The system's so broken," Maddison said. Greg Malham did not respond to any of Four Corners' detailed questions, but in a preliminary call, he said the corflute video was intended as a joke amongst a small group of friends and that his fondness for mobster movies had been misinterpreted. Mr Malham pointed to his long and successful career at Epworth. Despite the scandal following the corflute video and his departure from Epworth, Mr Malham is now operating at Melbourne's Warringal Private Hospital, whose code of conduct says it has zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour. Warringal's owner, Ramsay Health Care, said in a statement to Four Corners that Greg Malham has "temporary credentialling" and his application for full credentialling was "currently progressing". It said all practitioners seeking to work there must agree to uphold its code of conduct and values. Watch Four Corners' full investigation, God Complex, tonight from 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
