Kidney Disease Screening

Gotta love it; a not-for-profit organisation (Kidney Care Australia) put this press release out on 13 November 2007. Gist of the release is:

A market stall in the centre of the South Australian mining town Roxby Downs will provide the grass roots start of one of Australia's most important primary health care programs; Kidney Health Australia with the support of the Federal Government and BHP Billiton (emphasis is mine) will launch "Kidney Evaluation for You" KEY an early detection program which will evaluate kidney function, cardiovascular health and diabetes in high risk individuals.
Dr Tim Mathew, Medical Director of Kidney Health Australia said until now a primary heath care program for chronic kidney disease (CKD) detection has not existed.

This was not picked up anywhere that I could see via this google news search, until today when the Sydney Morning Herald published "Corporate deal to test for silent, overlooked killer."

While there is much the same in the article as in the press release, this time there are some more news worthy quotes :

"Desperate for money, Kidney Health Australia lobbied the mining giant BHP Billiton and was given $120,000. The Federal Government then kicked in another $200,000."

"The chief executive of Kidney Health Australia, Anne Wilson, said yesterday the Howard government had ignored kidney disease and there had been no primary health care detection program until now."

(Doesn't exactly add up if the funding was in place to be announced prior to the election, but hey; something else to blame the previous government for, and to get the article past the editor and not spiked)

"BHP Billiton has identified 140 employees as suitable to be screened. Samantha Evans, the media relations manager for BHP Billiton Asia Pacific, said: "Because we know we have the potential to have a big impact on the community we want to make sure that we have a lasting positive impact … it's an important health issue.""

Yep; I know that good mining companies do take the health of their workers seriously - it makes good economic sense to prevent or treat chronic conditions so that employees can remain productively on payroll.

But I reckon that it sucks that a national health promotion and advocacy can't get "good news" up, but the PR manager for a trans-global miner can.

Still; it is good news, and therefore good to see.