I'm back home in Derby.

The good news: after more than 8 weeks, we finally have a broadband connection at the house. The order went into Telstra for a phone and broadband ADSL connection on January 23. Today it is live, finally, after many phone calls and finally intervention from the DAHS CEO pulling strings. It wouldn't be so bad except in the middle of the whole FUBAR situation the president of Telstra was on the morning news explaining that connecting remote and rural doctors and medical centers in the North of Australia was "their highest priority". Pity the poor bastard at the bottom of the list.

The bad news: driving home tonite, it had just gotton dark and started to rain and I hit a cow. I had already slowed down and suddenly a whole herd was standing out in the road in the rain, and even pumping brakes like mad I couldn't stop or steer around them. I am ok, but poor cow- I had to call the police to go back out the 20km south of Derby to put it out of its misery. Thank god for the "roo catcher" on the front of the Patrol- it is all dented in. Sorry cow. I am never going to hear the end of this from the other Dr Charles at DAHS, who refuses to drive at night, saying, "its just blood on the road" whenever you do. He was right.

Finally, all of the above is of miniscule importance compared to the following article. My problems are trivial. If you wondered why I've taken time and effort to blog about Aboriginal Health and DAHS, then read this:

From: Aboriginal Health System Needs Revamp

Monday Mar 26 19:29 AEST
A report into the death of an elderly Aboriginal patient, who died when he was left alone at a remote airstrip in the Northern Territory, has warned of more tragedies unless urgent action is taken.

The 78-year-old indigenous elder was flown home to Kalkaringi, about 600km south of Darwin, on August 21 last year after being treated at Katherine District Hospital.

The man, who was almost blind and could not walk unaided, had no escort on the chartered flight and there was no one to meet him when he arrived.

The man, whose name can not be used for cultural reasons, was left at the airstrip and his body was found in nearby bushland one week later, after police had abandoned their search.

A month after his death, the NT health department vowed to tighten transfer procedures.

Rather than just faxing the details of patient itineraries to their local clinics, the department said it would now follow up with telephone calls as well.

But an independent investigation into the man's death - commissioned by the Health Department and the Katherine West Health Board - warned on Monday of more deaths under the current system.

"Under existing arrangements, and in the absence of a centralised coordination process around the Patient Travel Scheme (PTS), the potential for further adverse incident ... is considered a high risk," the report said.

Despite the fact there are about 8,000 patient transfers - mostly by plane - to small, remote communities each year, investigators found there was no system of checking to make sure people got home safely.

The report recommended improving communication with remote clinics and insisted pilots never leave a patient alone at a remote airstrip.

"There are gaps in the communication processes around the operation of patient transport to and from the remote communities that need to be addressed as a matter of priority," the report said.

It also recommended the NT government recruit Aboriginal clinical staff at Katherine Hospital and other regional health services.

NT Health Minister Chris Burns welcomed the findings, calling the death "a tragic incident that should never have occurred".

"The system failed this man," he said.

"I am deeply sorry this happened and for the distress caused to the man's family."

At the time of the man's death, his niece Josie Crawshaw-Guy accused the health department of "hard-core, systemic racism".

The death prompted the Australian Medical Association (AMA) to call for a royal commission into the state of Aboriginal healthcare in the territory.

Checks have revealed at least one other case of a bungled patient transfer investigated by the NT coroner in the past three years.

In early November 2001, a 67-year-old man with dementia and severe acidosis and hyperkalemia - too much potassium in the blood - was put on a bus from Darwin hospital to Katherine without an escort.

He was later found by relatives under a tree dressed in his hospital pyjamas near the tourist information centre in Katherine.

His only possession was a bus ticket and the man died in Katherine Hospital from acute renal failure three weeks later.