Ballina Information Blog

Ballina Shire primary schools are being invited to join other North Coast schools in applying for grants to encourage their students to be more active, thanks to a partnership between the North Coast Area Health Service, the NSW Cancer Council Northern Region and the Australian Sports Commission. Last year Tyalla Public School in Coffs Harbour [...]

Prompted by the recent case of a man requiring treatment for a bat scratch, the North Coast Public Health Unit has issued a firm warning for people to leave the handling of bats to the experts. The man receiving treatment found a young fruit bat on the side of the road and took it to [...]

Parents are being reminded to ensure their children are fully vaccinated before they start school next week. “Pre-schoolers are at particular risk because their four-year-old vaccinations are the ones that are most commonly forgotten,” said Dr Sue Page, GP, manager of the Northern Rivers Division of General Practice’s immunisation project. “These vaccines protect children from [...]

Assistants in Nursing and Enrolled Nurses considering a career as a registered nurse are being offered a unique opportunity to enrol directly in a Bachelor of Nursing degree at Southern Cross University this year. Dr John Stevens, head of the Department of Nursing and Health Care Practices, said not many Assistant in Nursing (AIN) graduates [...]

How much sugar do you consume in a week? Surprisingly, World Health Organisation research shows that Australians eat an average of 63kg of sugar a year! That’s more than a kilo a week. According to NSW Health figures, most sugar we eat comes in processed foods. Less is put directly into home-prepared drinks and meals. [...]

We are a healthy lot here in Ballina Shire, according to North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) research. The NCAHS says people living in its region — from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie — are the State’s highest consumers of fresh fruit and vegetables. It says that 195,900 North Coast residents aged 16 and over [...]

Member for Ballina Don Page has welcomed the announcement of the site for the new Byron Shire Central Hospital, saying it would complement the planned expansion of services at Ballina Hospital. Mr Page said a six-hectare parcel of land on the southern side of Ewingsdale Road, near the intersection of the Pacific Highway, had been [...]

Professor Paul Clark, pictured, suspects that like himself, most men think they are bullet proof. But Southern Cross University’s Vice-Chancellor realised what a very tenuous grasp on life we all have when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. He has since had treatment and the cancer has not spread to other parts of his [...]

Eighteen Rehabilitation/Transition Care beds will be established at Ballina Hospital under a revamp of services. North Coast Area Health Service chief executive Chris Crawfored said that from mid-January 2007, the NCAHS will assume direct responsibility for providing rehabilitation beds and Aged Care Assessment Team services in the Richmond Valley, following a decision by St Vincent’s [...]

When Jan Barling lost her teenage son to cancer, she came face to face with the glaring inadequacies of the health system in dealing with the special social and emotional needs of teenagers. The Southern Cross University researcher discovered that her son, Anthony, like all teenage cancer patients, was caught between two worlds. Anthony was [...]