Bronwyn Cowell gets a check up with Dr Tim Green, director of the Emergency Department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital


By Bronwyn Cowell
Published monthly: February 25, 2009

. . . Do you [Dr Green] or workers in your department notice a spike in student admissions on Wednesday nights (the traditional college party night) or on the night of big events, like college formals?

It’s funny you mention Wednesday night. Until recently I worked every Wednesday evening for many years and I couldn’t figure out why it was always me who was trying to hail a cab surrounded by people in togas or tennis outfits… I didn’t realize Wednesday was the college party night.

But to answer your question no significant spike of attendances, although I do recall a few ankle injuries following formals when the combination of a few drinks and high stiletto heels caused a few problems… I don’t know if that counts as a spike of admissions.

. . . How have you seen drug and alcohol related admissions change over time? For example, has the RPA ED seen the ugly end of the so called ice ‘epidemic’? Or are other party drugs like cocaine and pills still more prevalent?

There’s been a lot of changes. When people take too much ice they can get very aggressive, violent, even psychotic. They may hurt themselves, others and unfortunately we’ve had a run of nurses and doctors getting hit.

The other thing is that many young people think that using so called “party drugs” is pretty safe…The trouble is that you never know what you are taking and we’ve seen some pretty sick people. The worst offender is GBH. The margin of error with that drug is so small. We get a few cases every weekend of people who stop breathing. I’d hate to know how many people don’t make it to hospital. . . . --NewsHammer 3/04/2009

Continue reading this article from the Feb 25, 2009 O Week Edition of the University of Sydney's Honi Soit.

Link to the current monthly issue of Honi Soit.

The whole capitalist system that controls the world is going through a mass extinction, and just like biological mass extinctions, something totally new will emerge


By Angus Miller
Published monthly: February 9, 2009

The neo-liberal dream of a world run by the free market is as dead now as the socialist dream of a world run without any markets at all. China and India might just become real rivals to the power of the US. The power of governments everywhere will increase compared to the power of big corporations. Basic economic theory will be reassessed. So, you’re probably not as interested in that as me (an economics student), and in the meantime with this mass extinction, it’s our jobs, our opportunities and ultimately our lifestyle that could be on the line.

First there was the subprime crisis, which then became the credit crunch and now that is just referred to as the economic crisis, which has more recently become the recession. The scary truth is that no one knows when things will get better.

Debt has become quite a big thing over the last twenty years. Many large companies have been boosting their profits by operating with very high levels of debt. In other words they borrow lots of money, invest it and hope that what they earn is more than their interest costs. This is called leveraging. . . . --NewsHammer 3/01/2009

Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Catalyst.

Link to current issue of Catalyst monthly magazine.