In other news ...

Senior hospital nurses in WA could be given wider powers to discharge patients as part of a bid to reduce waiting times in emergency departments, the ABC reports.

Partners should not be allowed to stay overnight with mothers in shared maternity wards, says the ACT opposition, after several newborn babies and adults were exposed to tuberculosis at the Canberra Hospital, writes the ABC.

The death of a man at a Bundaberg nursing home will be investigated after two different medical reports did not satisfy the coroner that the 55-year-old died of natural causes, says the News Mail.

A woman suspecting her third miscarriage says she felt patronised about her concerns at Geelong Hospital before being admitted later that night with an apparent ectopic pregnancy, according to the Geelong Advertiser.

The Casino district hospital on the NSW north coast has been without a doctor for most of the week and is turning patients away, according to rumours, but the area’s health service would not confirm or deny this to The Northern Star.

Men are increasingly prominent among Australians suffering kidney failure, with a disproportionate ratio of three men joining the dialysis treatment list for every two women, according to latest figures in WA Today.

West Australian Health Minister Kim Hames allowed $25 million of restricted funds to be used to pay day-to-day bills at public hospitals, a move which Auditor-General Colin Murphy has described as “inappropriate,” the West Australian reports.

Victorian hospitals have lost more than $35m in bad investments in the 2008-09 financial year, after writing off more than $10m in the previous year, state Auditor-General's report found, according to News.com.au

The Rudd Government should be more concerned with poorly performing hospitals and surgeons rather than publishing health insurance premium increases, says the Australian Health Insurance Association, according to the Canberra Times.

The Royal North Shore Hospital is closing its café after the business became unsustainable, The Mosman Daily says.

Sunshine Coast MPs say that $1 billion set aside for the Traveston Dam Crossing, that will no longer be built, should be used to build the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports. 

Alcohol sponsorship of sport should be banned to avoid exposing children to alcohol advertising and alcohol taxes raised, scientists wrote in international journal Addiction, according to the Courier Mail.