Ambulance

• If implemented, the recommendations will advance gambling regulation by several orders of magnitude.
• Many countries are grappling with regulating unlicensed online gambling operators registered in places like Curaçao and the Isle of Man.
• Read more:
  Place your bets: will banning illegal offshore sites really help kick our gambling habit?

Phasing out advertising

• The first would ban all social media and online advertising.
• In the second phase, broadcast advertising for an hour either side of sporting broadcasts would be banned (as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has argued for).
• The third stage would prohibit all broadcast advertising for gambling between 6am and 10pm.

Important precedents

• The recommendations would set important precedents that can be readily applied to other forms of gambling.
• These include the principle of establishing a public health-oriented harm prevention policy, a national regulatory system, and enhancing consumer protections to potentially include a universal pre-commitment system.

Industry will resist

• The online gambling industry will do all it can to thwart these initiatives, along with broadcasters and some sports businesses.
• The report acknowledges wagering service providers have “successfully framed the issue of gambling harm around personal responsibility while diminishing industry and government responsibility”.
• There is too much potential for the gambling industry to be involved in the development of gambling regulation and policy in Australia.
• There is too much potential for the gambling industry to be involved in the development of gambling regulation and policy in Australia.

• "It's actually a good example of how MedSTAR Transport is more than just ambulances and helicopters," Dr. Drass said.
• "As the medical director for our air and ground teams, I'm thrilled to be a part of this critical service that continues to grow with the full support of MedStar Health to help patients receive the care they need when they need it," said MedSTAR Transport Medical Director J. Matthew Sasser, MD .
• "Long before I started working for MedStar Health, I called on MedSTAR Transport often to transport critical patients who needed a higher level of care than was offered at my hospitals.
• In addition to MedStar Washington Hospital Center and area community hospitals, MedStar Health hospitals with helipads where MedSTAR Transport can land and take off with patients include:
  Transferring patients proved critically important at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as MedStar Health relied on MedSTAR Transport — which saw a 40% increase in transport volume — to distribute severely ill patients across the health system.

• Since the pandemic, a series of low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) have been installed across the UK.
• LTNs are designed to curtail car use in residential streets and promote active modes of travel such as walking, cycling and travelling by wheelchair.
• They aim to create a more pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists by using cameras, planting boxes or bollards to restrict motor vehicle traffic.
• Yet the existing evidence still offers a clearer understanding of how LTNs can positively impact various aspects of urban life.

Fewer cars, more active travel

• This finding supports previous research commissioned by climate action charity, Possible, that examined traffic data from 46 LTNs across 11 London boroughs.
• Between 2015 and 2019, rates of car ownership in outer London LTNs reduced by 6% relative to control areas.
• Evidence on the shift to active travel prompted by LTNs is more limited.
• However, a study funded by Transport for London on LTNs that pre-dated COVID in London’s Waltham Forest, found a 1-2 hour increase per person in weekly active travel compared to the control area.

What about the concerns?

• Videos have surfaced online showing fire engines and ambulances unable to get past bollards or planting boxes.
• However, the only published academic study on the topic, which examined the impact of LTNs on fire service emergency response times in Waltham Forest, found no negative effects.

Learning from Barcelona

• In both Ealing (a district of west London) and Warrington (a town in northern England), councils removed LTNs after the objection of residents.
• The “superblocks” initiative (city blocks where pedestrians and cyclists are prioritised over motorised vehicles) in Barcelona is a good example of such an approach.
• Dr Jamie Furlong receives funding from TfL for a related project analysing behaviour change and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

• Earlier results from this study demonstrated that a ‘Direct-to-Angio Suite’ (DTAS) pathway improves clinical outcomes for patients who have suffered a stroke.
• “The ANGIOCAT clinical study has already shown that bringing stroke patients directly to the angio suite improves patient outcomes.
• For stroke centers, a time-saving alternative is to have a dedicated angio-suite permanently on standby, to which stroke patients can be transferred immediately after admission.
• Philips’ stroke portfolio includes solutions for stroke monitoring and communication in ambulances, tele-stroke patient assessment, diagnostic imaging and analysis, image-guided therapy, neurological monitoring and assessment, and more.