News

The Cancer Council recently ran GP education at Glen Iris Medical Group on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. We learned that our area – South East Melbourne has one of the the lowest screening rates within the program. We also learned that if 100,000 people without symptoms screen for Bowel Cancer with a simple test kit – the statistics show there will be 19 deaths in that population. If 100,000 people have no screening at all, there will be 60 deaths within that population.

All the Doctors and Staff at Glen Iris Medical Group would like to wish all our patients a happy, healthy and safe holiday period.

Eating disorders are thought to affect more than one million Australians and many of these people will never seek help or treatment for their condition.

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in women choosing to preserve future fertility through a process commonly referred to as ‘egg freezing’.

Egg freezing allows a woman to store mature eggs for an indefinite length of time. The aim being to allow a woman a chance of achieving a pregnancy at a later stage of life.

This is a one off opportunity for a thorough health check with our Nurse and your usual GP.

We are delighted to introduce patients to Dr Pearl Mak.

Grass pollen season (October- December) brings the chance of thunderstorm asthma and hay fever. If you suffer from hay fever or asthma, it can be serious and life threatening, if not managed well. Although it does not happen every year, we must prepare ourselves for an epidemic thunderstorm asthma. If you have asthma or hay fever it can trigger severe asthma symptoms if not managed well. This is highest in adults who are sensitised to grass pollen and have seasonal allergic rhinitis even without known asthma.

The rotator cuff is the name used to describe the group of muscles and tendons that surround and support the shoulder joint and allow movement in different directions.

There are four muscles that make up the rotator cuff. These are the supraspinatus, subscapularis, infraspinatus and teres minor.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a condition that affects the wrist, causing numbness, tingling and pain in the affected hand. It can affect one hand only or occur bilaterally. It seems to affect women more frequently than men.

In order to understand how carpal tunnel syndrome develops, it helps to have a bit of understanding of the anatomy of the wrist. If we were to look at a cross section through the wrist, there is a passageway, or ‘tunnel’ about 2cm wide that allows passage of the nerves, tendons and blood vessels from the forearm to the hand.

Firstly, we would like to reassure our patients that Glen Iris Medical Group withdrew all association with HealthEngine over a year ago, when it was revealed patient’s had unknowingly consented to their 3rd party referral process.

Foot and leg problems are very common for people with Diabetes. Problems with the feet and legs can be very difficult to treat if they are not detected and managed early.

Diabetes can cause decrease circulation in the feet and lower legs which means any wounds sustained can take a very long time to heal. Diabetes can also cause nerve damage in the extremities, also known as ‘diabetic neuropathy’. This can make the feet less sensitive to pain or to extreme temperatures, meaning that wounds such as cuts, abrasions or burns may go unnoticed.

Premenstrual syndrome or PMS is the term used to describe a wide variety of physical and emotional symptoms that women commonly experience in the days leading up to a menstrual cycle (period). They can also continue for the first few days of a period.

Blood pressure is a measurement of the force placed on the walls of the blood vessels as blood is pumped around the body. It naturally varies throughout the day, depending on what your body is doing.

This year’s influenza season is well and truly underway, with many thousands of confirmed reports of flu virus being made early as March. As at 24th June 2019, there were over 21,500 lab-confirmed, reported cases of flu. This figure represents only cases where a test was performed, so the true number is likely significantly higher.

Autumn has arrived, and with it – I’m afraid – the barrage of mischievous little microbes to wreck havoc on our bodies! Most upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are viral in origin, so antibiotics make no diddly squat of a difference. But the common cold is by no means a trivial issue – ask any man beleaguered by ‘man flu’, and he will no doubt bemoan his suffering and sorrow.

‘Tennis elbow’ is the common terminology for a painful condition that affects the elbow(s). The medical name for this condition is lateral epicondylitis.

Mastitis is an inflammatory condition of the breast tissue that commonly affects mothers within the first four to six weeks following birth. It affects around 1 in 5 mothers in Australia and can be very painful and distressing.

Every year, thousands of Australians are hospitalised with influenza. It is a major cause of illness in our community and was attributed to around 57 deaths last year. The 2018 flu season was very mild compared to previous years. There were just under 50,000 laboratory confirmed cased, which is less than half of the annual average. The burden placed on hospitals and time off work was significantly lower than in previous years.

A colonoscopy is a procedure performed to visually examine the bowel. It is performed using a long, thin plastic tube with a light and camera at one end. The tube is flexible, allowing the Doctor to examine the inside the large intestine (colon) from all angles. The images from the camera are projected onto a screen for the Doctor to view. The tube is inserted into the rectum, under sedation so the patient does not feel anything. It is then manoeuvered through the colon to examine the health and appearance of the tissues that line the large intestine.

It is with a great deal of love and respect, that we announce the retirement of Dr Diana Rattray at the end of May this year.