AfterTek

In more bad news for Health Minister Bronwyn Pike, the latest hospital report shows a blow-out in the elective surgery waiting lists to 37,197 Victorians. The state’s hospitals failed half their performance benchmarks, meaning tens of thousands of patients were not given medical attention in the required periods.

The six-month update into the performance of hospitals shows the Government has failed to rein in the ballooning surgery waiting lists, despite a 2006 funding blitz designed to reduce the list ahead of last November’s state election.

Media reports that the drug treatment program referrals from the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) are declining patients was rejected outright by the director. Dr Ingrid van Beek responded to a report, which alleged treatment referrals were in decline, by saying such referrals have in fact increased. “The number of client referrals to drug treatment and rehabilitation programs has not decreased over time, they have in fact increased,” Dr van Beek said.

According to a new study published online November 27, 2006 in The Anatomical Record, the official journal of the American Association of Anatomists, whales share brain cells with humans. The research suggests that “certain cetaceans and hominids may have evolved side by side.”

Examining brains from various cetaceans, the group of marine mammals that includes whales and dolphins, Patrick R. Hof and Estel Van der Gucht of the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY found substantial variability between the cell structure of the cortex in humpback whales compared to toothed whales like dolphins.