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Marxists defending Benedict?
Page 9
What’s going on when the Pope’s best defenders are Socialists? Something interesting.
Euthanasia is dead, time to move on: SJOG director
Leading hospital director welcomes defeat of WA Green’s euthanasia bill, but says key to the future is providing sufficient palliative care services, including the training of doctors, nurses and support workers
Sudanese offer audio-visual musical feast
By Anthony Barich AUSTRALIA’S largest Catholic not for profit private healthcare group has urged the State Government to turn its attention to additional funding for palliative care after the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill’s defeat on 22 September proved it is “not the answer”. St John of God Health Care Medical Services director Dr Lachlan Henderson said the bill’s “resounding” defeat 24 votes to 11 confirms that “it is unnecessary, given modern pain conSJOGHC Medical trol and palliative Services Director Dr care techniques Lachlan Henderson such as those we offer at our highly regarded Murdoch Community Hospice and our other excellent palliative care services in our hospitals in WA and Victoria. “We now urge the Government to turn its attention to allocating additional funds to palliative care in order to increase inpatient and community services, as well as train and employ the necessary additional doctors, nurses, and support workers,” he said. Dr Henderson said that the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill would have placed an added and unwanted onus on doctors and radically changed the current “healing” relationship between doctor and patient. Irrespective of euthanasia being contrary to SJOGHC’s Catholic mission and values, the legislation was also “simply bad medicine”, he said. “It would have undermined patient trust in their doctors – as in the Netherlands and Belgium where voluntary euthanasia is legal – and it has been shown to have damaging effects on doctors who provide it,” he said. Dr Henderson said legalising euthanasia would permanently and radically change the ethos of health care provision in Western Australia and would do nothing to protect a vulnerable group in society. Please turn to Page 5
Members of the Sudanese Catholic Community put on a cultural feast on 26 September when they performed African Gospel songs at the Redemptorist Monastery in North Perth. The Monastery’s Youth Group also performed, including a rousing rendition of Ave Maria. But it was the Sudanese who stole the show, proving not only an audio hit but a visional one as well, with their national dress also providing an added delight. Story, more photos: Page 3 PHOTO: JACINTA SPRY
An app a day keeps the Doctor ... organised New application helps medicos on the run keep things sorted
WHEN global technology giant Apple says “there’s an app for that,” they could be referring to the work of Perth doctor Rhys Clark. The University of Notre Dame Australia medical graduate has developed iDoctor, an iPhone application to assist training medicos to keep track of their professional development and patient caseloads. The iTunes application allows users to log hospital cases and export them to Excel and other spreadsheet programs. Dr Clark, who works at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, said once doctors had
reached a required number of supervised procedures, it was simple to email and print the spreadsheet for authorisation. He said he saw a need for junior doctors to keep accurate records of their experiences “on-the-go” and iDoctor provided a toolbox of assorted log entries to enable them to keep their CVs up-to-date with educational and professional development activities. “As training positions become increasingly competitive and we move towards experiPlease turn to Page 10
iDoctor: Dr Ryhs Clark, with iPhone in hand, outside Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. iDoctor, the iPhone application he created, helps doctors to keep track of professional development and patient caseloads on their iPhones. PHOTO: UNDA