Michael Woodhead

80% of China’s clinical trial data are fraudulent, investigation finds

Just over 80% of clinical trial data submitted to support new drug registrations in China have been revealed as fraudulent or substandard by the country’s drug regulator. An investigation of data for 1622 new drugs submitted to China’s State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for registration said that 1308 of the applications should be withdrawn because they contained fabricated, flawed, or inadequate data from clinical trials.1 In a damning report released on 9 September the CFDA described the findings of widespread fraud as shocking and vowed to crack down on what it described as a “chaotic” situation in the country’s clinical trials industry. Much of the blame was attributed to the country’s loosely regulated clinical research organisations, which industry insiders claimed operate in …

Australian doctors face two years in jail for reporting asylum seekers’ health

Doctors in Australia have vowed to fight a new law that threatens them with two years in jail if they speak out about abuse and poor conditions in detention centres for asylum seekers. The new legislation has been enacted as part of the Australian government’s hardline “stop the boats” policy that transfers people arriving by boat in Australian waters to offshore detention centres on distant Pacific islands such as Nauru. Conditions in the immigration detention centres have been condemned as “appalling” by healthcare workers, who have reported unhygienic and overcrowded accommodation in tents, substandard medical care, sexual and physical abuse of children, and mental health problems among asylum seekers subject to indefinite detention. The government’s own report conceded that conditions were harsh on the tropical islands, which have limited infrastructure and where detainees are at risk of diseases such as malaria. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians last week called for an end to the …

Hospitals overwhelmed with patients after “thunderstorm asthma” hits Melbourne

At least four people have died and thousands have been taken to hospital with respiratory problems after a “thunderstorm asthma” event in Melbourne on Monday 21 November. Ambulance services and hospital emergency departments were overwhelmed by the unprecedented incident, believed to have been caused by a surge in pollen levels, triggering allergic asthma in vulnerable people. Victoria’s health department said that since the event more than 8500 patients had presented to hospitals with respiratory problems, of whom 60 were still receiving treatment and five were in a critical condition. Among the dead were a 35 year old man, a 20 year old female student, and an 18 year old high school student. Respiratory physicians …

Australian doctor challenges government over child detention “torture”

One of Australia’s leading paediatricians has invited the government to arrest and prosecute him for defying a new law that gags healthcare workers from speaking about conditions in detention centres for asylum seekers. David Isaacs, clinical professor in paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Sydney, said that he witnessed appalling and inhumane conditions for children while working in Australia’s offshore immigration detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru. He also claimed that the Australian government was maintaining a media blackout and a culture of secrecy around the conditions in detention centres. In a recent paper published in the Journal of Medical Ethics ,1 Isaacs said that keeping children in long term and indefinite detention met the definition of …

Australian medical leaders call for urgent action on reports of abuse of immigrant detainees

Leaked reports of horrific conditions and widespread abuse of asylum seekers in an Australian immigration detention centre have prompted calls from medical groups to open up the camps to independent oversight. Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), said that the government needed to respond urgently to the 2000 incident reports compiled by staff of the Nauru offshore processing centre that showed that detainees, including women and children, were experiencing abuse, trauma, self harm, sexual assault, inadequate health services, and deplorable living conditions. “These disturbing reports echo long held concerns by the AMA about the lack of proper physical and mental healthcare being provided to people in immigration detention,” Gannon said in response to the reports published by the Guardian newspaper.1 Gannon said that there was too much secrecy around immigration detention centres, and he called on the Australian government …

Australian hospital discharges asylum seeker infant, into more controversy

After a tense 10 day standoff between doctors and immigration authorities, a Brisbane hospital has discharged a 12 month old baby after reassurances were given by authorities that she would not be immediately sent back to a detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru. In what has become known as the Baby Asha case, doctors at the Lady Cilento Hospital refused to discharge the infant, who had been treated in the burns unit. They believed it to be unethical to allow the infant to be returned to an “unsafe” offshore detention environment where most children show signs of mental trauma and are exposed to violence and abuse. It was feared that the immigration department would send in security guards to forcibly remove the child from the hospital, and a large group of supporters maintained a week long vigil outside the hospital. On Sunday 22 February it was …

China celebrates better access to healthcare at Communist Party congress

Universal healthcare cover and the creation of a primary care system were two of the landmark achievements being celebrated at China’s 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, held in Beijing on 22 October. Ms Li Bin, director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told the congress that the nation had implemented major reforms over the past five years to achieve what she called “a basic healthcare system with Chinese characteristics.” Speaking at a media briefing at the congress, she noted that 95% of China’s population were now covered by basic health insurance and that people paid only about 30% of medical fees from their own pocket, down from …

Australian doctors refuse to discharge refugee girl into government detention

Paediatricians at a Brisbane hospital are defying the Australian government by refusing to discharge the child of an asylum seeker, saying that she faces unsafe conditions in an offshore immigration detention centre. Doctors at the Lady Cilento Hospital said that it was their ethical duty not to release the 12 month old, known as Baby Asha, into conditions that even the Immigration Department’s own doctors have admitted were harmful to children. Baby Asha is recovering from burn injuries she sustained while living in a tent in the Australian run immigration detention camp on the …

China to train 22 000 more paediatricians in next four years

China is taking drastic steps to increase the number of paediatricians, as the country faces a crippling shortage of child health specialists with its move away from a one child policy. The National Health and Family Planning Commission announced on 24 February that it would seek to expand training places to produce up to 22 000 extra paediatric physicians by 2020. China is already experiencing a severe shortage of paediatricians, with fewer than 118 000 clinicians to serve a population of 220 million children under the age of 14, a ratio of only 0.5 practitioners per 1000 children. The Chinese Medical Doctors Association stated that China needs an extra 200 000 paediatricians if it is to match the ratio of 1.4 paediatricians per 1000 patients seen in developed countries. The shortage of paediatricians is likely to …

Australia will price out cigarettes with 50% tax rise over four years.

Australia is to continue its aggressive tobacco taxation policy with a further four rounds of 12.5% yearly increases that will hike the price of a pack of cigarettes from the current level of US