AHPRA Expense
It’s arrived, like the banks, online registration through AHPRA. Click on the reminder email and you are there – go through your paces, tick the boxes, and get your credit card out. It will take you less time than a walk to the ATM and you can print out your tax invoice. Certainly efficient. Should be cheap? For a registration that’s “Limited (Public Interest – Occasional Practice)”, which is the old farts looking after the rels with an occasional script, it is $262!
Facebook Promotion Clamp Downs
Any medical entity with a Facebook page must now regard content as advertising. A complaint against the official Smirnoff Vodka Facebook page prompted this decision from the Advertising Standards Board – Facebook was a marketing communication tool if used “to draw the attention of a segment of the public to a product in a manner calculated to promote or oppose that product”. Facebook now becomes subject to regulations relating to standards in advertising and marketing, as well as liability under consumer protection laws for misleading conduct. This includes anything placed there by people accessing the site. Scrutiny to remove obscene material now extends to inaccuracies (that need to be corrected) and a real no-no is paying someone to say things on your Facebook page
Boom Time WA
While retail SMEs are shutting down in regional areas, the mining boom continues, so strongly that five of the country’s top 10 richest towns are said to be in WA. Dampier first, with 22% of its residents earning >$4000 pw, followed by Karratha (18.9%), Port Hedland (17.6%) and City Beach (16.1%). The highest median income towns are in postcode 6710 (that’s Onslow and four other Australia Post delivery areas we’ve never heard of), at >$2,000 a week. Next in line are Newman, Bullfinch, Tom Price and Hamersley ($1915-$1824 pw median incomes). In NSW its Kirribilli and Milsons Point ($1311 pw). Another measure of wealth is Australia’s 934,000 unoccupied private dwellings. Men dominate mining areas, while the highest concentrations of women are near universities!.
Cystic fibrosis PXS
Australian company Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) announced a PBS listing for Bronchitol (a spray-dried form of mannitol delivered in a specially designed inhaler) for the treatment of the 3000 or so Australians with cystic fibrosis. Announced to the market on June 25 and again by recent press release, the treatment has been shown to improve lung function and infection rates. The big markets still to be cracked are North America and Europe, currently with only permission to market Bronchitol in the EU. The company has received federal government grants to develop the drug and manufacture it at their Sydney plant, and PBS listing should not involve a big spend. The share price has shown little movement since the announcement.
Superclinic Midland Running
GP Super Clinic at the Midland Railway Workshop is up and running with six GPs consulting (3 FTEs). Hours are only 8.30am to 6pm weekdays, with the intention to increase to 8am to 10pm, seven days, over the next year. GP services are bulk billed. Appointments are advertised as available on the day. Two of the five doctors consulting are Dr Vasantha Preetham and her daughter Amitha. They hope to introduce health promotion, chronic disease management and suchlike as patient demand increases. GP afterhours services in area are currently through the AH clinic at Swan District Hospital.
