Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy warns New Zealand to pay attention to Tasmania's experience

As the country stays bunkered down during the pandemic, some ambulance services have seen a reduction in call-outs, especially to road accidents. Others say they're dealing with calls about flu-like symptoms that need to go elsewhere.

The Chief Medical Officer spent nearly two hours answering questions from senators about Australia's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are all the key points you need to know.

Ambulance paramedics left a woman with a history of mental illness alone in her home without electricity, hot water or lighting before she was found dead months later, in a move a coroner said was "difficult to understand."

Australia's emu farmers are trying to ramp up production as the demand for oil increases.

Jemma Burns survived being run over by a truck thanks to the blood donations of others. Now, as the Red Cross Blood Service marks its 90th anniversary, it is planning to expand into other interesting and unusual areas.

The sister of murdered exchange student Aiia Maasarwe says she does not feel safe in Melbourne, as she returns to the city of her sister's death to help launch a fellowship in her honour.

A man responsible for an "atrocious attack" on an off-duty paramedic during a crime spree on the Mornington Peninsula last year is sentenced to five years and nine months in jail.

A team of volunteer dog owners are faithfully visiting aged-care homes with their canine companions, bringing much joy and contentment to many of the residents.

Many Nimbin residents have welcomed Federal Government plans to legalise medicinal cannabis and say their town would be an ideal hub for the new potential cash crop.

Daniel Mansbridge was seven kilometres into a 1,000-kilometre charity ride for children's cancer when he was knocked off his bicycle and bashed by a group of teenagers.

They've battled gale-force winds, cold winter nights, and drunks serenading them with Billy Joel classics at three in the morning. But two young medicos are determined to keep sleeping out in their scrubs to draw attention to the detention of asylum seekers.

The family of 19-year-old Sabrina Di Lembo allege the GPs and mental health service involved in her treatment were negligent.

A South Australian cannabis oil distributor has been spared a conviction for providing the drug to terminally ill people, with the judge saying her actions helped rather than harmed the recipients.

According to medical experts, a condition that requires coloured glasses does not exist, yet WA and NSW teachers have attended training sessions on it.

The number of coronavirus cases in Victoria continues to inch up as a paramedic tests positive to the virus and health authorities investigate a cluster at a meat processing plant.

Doctors label medicinal cannabis prescriptions a "bureaucratic nightmare" requiring "a massive learning curve", as patients say people in pain cannot wait months for relief.

Consultants investigating Ambulance Tasmania found poor management of fatigue and workplace stress and a lack of workplace health and safety procedures across the organisation, a leaked report reveals.

Paramedics will return patients to ambulances for care if they are waiting more than half an hour in the ramping area of the Royal Hobart Hospital.

A high school PE teacher cuts his long hair in honour of his mum, as donations of human hair for medical wigs increases.

John Flynn established a medical facility in Innamincka and now, 68 years later, the RFDS is continuing on-the-ground medical services.

In regional Victoria, palliative care patients are waiting hours and sometimes days for much-needed medications to help with pain and quality of life.

The Northern Territory's Police Commissioner and soon-to-be federal police chief admits some of his officers inappropriately accessed the private medical records of a public servant.

In the remote Northern Territory community of Ampilatwatja, paintings show the prescriptions for thousands of years of traditional healing.

The first Territory patient to ever fill a script for medical cannabis in the NT has now been approved, NT Health has confirmed.

A Gold Coast mother relives the horror of finding her young son with a pencil lodged in the roof of his mouth as she is reunited with the paramedics who helped save his life.

This year's Gulf Frontier Days Festival attracted Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from all over the world.

Investment in new warehouse storage and handling systems has helped an online pharmacy secure an estimated 30% improvement in productivity.

Free goods movement restrictions, imposed by the majority of EU countries at their borders to control the spread COVID-19, are disrupting supply chains, including crucial drug and medical equipment supplies.

A Newcastle immunologist on trial for abusing dozens of women has argued vaginal and anal examinations he performed on patients were for medical, not sexual reasons.

A father says the day he watched his infant daughter suffer a violent two-and-a-half-hour seizure was when he decided breaking the law was a small price to pay for her life.

The Tristar Medical Group's chain of 50 clinics across regional Australia has been under "significant financial stress for 18 months" resulting in doctors often not being paid for weeks or months.

The founder of an online discussion supporting hundreds trying to go dry believes drought, financial hardship, uncertainty, and isolation are causing more rural people to self-medicate with alcohol.

via Health News - The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2WLL65m

(California Court of Appeal) - Upheld a Veterinary Medical Board decision to take disciplinary action against a veterinarian for improperly treating four animal patients. Affirmed the denial of the veterinarian's petition for a writ of administrative mandate.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a corporate governance action, arising from plaintiff corporation's suit over the exercise of its right to repurchase shares of its stock, given to defendant under a stock incentive plan for outside directors on its board, the trial court's grant of summary judgment to defendant is: 1) reversed because plaintiff's conversion claim could be based on either ownership or the right to possession at the time of conversion; and 2) affirmed because plaintiff's fraud claims were not timely under either the discovery rule or relation back doctrine, and thus barred by the statute of limitations.

(NY Supreme Court) - 2017–07383 (Index  12949/10) 12949/10

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Certified Question. The panel certified the question of state law to the Nevada Supreme Court asking whether an insurer is entitled reimbursement of costs already expended in defense of its insured where a determination has been made that the insurer owed no duty to defend and there was an agreement requiring reimbursement, but with no reservation of rights.

(California Court of Appeal) - Granting a writ petition in the case of a doctor who contested the introduction of arrest records relating to his conviction for possession of cocaine in professional misconduct proceedings and the tension between the Penal Code section stating that successful completion of a diversion program should not be used in a way that could result in the loss of a license and the Business and Professions Code section stating that the successful completion of diversion does not prohibit the agency from taking disciplinary action, holding that the latter statute was controlling.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a corporate governance action, arising from plaintiff corporation's suit over the exercise of its right to repurchase shares of its stock, given to defendant under a stock incentive plan for outside directors on its board, the trial court's grant of summary judgment to defendant is: 1) reversed because plaintiff's conversion claim could be based on either ownership or the right to possession at the time of conversion; and 2) affirmed because plaintiff's fraud claims were not timely under either the discovery rule or relation back doctrine, and thus barred by the statute of limitations.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirming a district court order denying a motion for attorney fees following the dismissal of a patent infringement suit with prejudice because attorney fees are only available in exceptional circumstances and the court decision was not an abuse of discretion.

(California Court of Appeal) - In an action arising out of injuries plaintiff sustained during a high school football game, alleging ambulance crew was grossly negligent in not properly assessing plaintiff's condition and immediately transporting him to the hospital in the standby ambulance, the trial court's grant of summary judgment to ambulance service provider defendant is affirmed where the court did not err in finding that there was no triable issue of material fact regarding causation.

(United States Federal Circuit) - In a government contracts action claiming underpayment for outpatient medical services provided for current and former military service members, the Federal Claims Court's dismissal for failure to state a claim is reversed where plaintiffs are not barred by bringing a breach of contract claim by a release included in the contract the government is accused of breaching.