In other news ...

Rates of bariatric surgery for obesity have doubled in just two years but the people who need it most are missing out because only privately insured patients can afford the operation, say The Age.

Despite offering a lucrative income package and relaxed lilfestyle the NSW town of Cunnamulla is still without a permanent GP for five years, says the ABC.

Medicare says it will start targeting pharmacists as well as doctors for overclaiming benefits, says the Herald Sun.

A Medicare clerk in Perth scammed more than $300,000 by using dead people's identities to falsely claim immunisation bonuses and has been jailed for four years, reports the West Australian.

The editor of the Medical Journal of Australia has called for a government investigation into the influence of ''ghost written'' scientific articles paid for by drug companies and medical device companies says The Age.

A study by the child protection unit at the Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney has found that only half the perpetrators of shaken baby syndrome are prosecuted, because it is often difficult to identify them, says the ABC.

A would-be medical student at the University of Queensland has been convicted of helping to steal more than $1 million in coins from Brisbane city parking meters, says the Brisbane Times.

The former wife of medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten is now an intensive care nurse and is modelling the new nurses uniform for St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, says the Daily Telegraph.

Patients in Canberra are angry at being charged $34 by GPs for copying patient medical records when they move, but ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher says the fees are justified, according to the ABC.

More than 200 patients who had colonoscopy and gastroscopy procedures at Inverell Hospital in northern NSW may have been exposed to infection risks after single use equipment was re-used, reports the ABC.

A $5 million GP Super Clinic promised to Bundaberg is bogged down in red tape, but a new private ‘medical hub’ is being built by property developers at the local Plaza, says the News Mail.

Hospital boards will be reinstated in rural South Australia if the Liberal opposition wins the next state elections, according to the ABC.

NSW’s new health minister Carmel Tebbutt has denied claims by doctors that their ‘slum’ hospital will face further cuts of $9 million, but she said the hospital would need to make cuts because it had overspent its budget, the Sydney Morning Herald says.