Aisha Dow
Health Editor, The Age
Aisha Dow is health editor with The Age and a former city reporter.
Exclusive
Healthcare
Patient seriously harmed after equipment fails during heart surgery
Between July 2021 and June 2022, 151 people died because of preventable errors in Victorian hospitals, according to data obtained by The Age.
- by Aisha Dow
Victoria’s hospitals are driving up costs by competing against each other
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas has flagged the state is considering amalgamating Victoria’s 76 health services because they are spending money competing against each other.
- by Broede Carmody, Kieran Rooney and Aisha Dow
Exclusive
Victorian budget
Hospitals put on notice: No bailouts if budgets blow out
The Allan government’s tough talk has again stoked fears that Victoria’s hospital funding shake-up will lead to amalgamations and erode patient care.
- by Broede Carmody, Aisha Dow, Kieran Rooney and Annika Smethurst
Exclusive
Illness
This comfort home item is a winter warmer but could be harming your neighbours
Many of us have fond memories of huddling around a wood heater or fire pit in winter. But are they doing more harm than good?
- by Aisha Dow
Exclusive
Healthcare
Arden’s electrical issues were known three years before shock hospital move
Authorities knew in 2021 that electromagnetic waves from Metro Tunnel trains were a risk to Arden’s recently scrapped hospital towers.
- by Henrietta Cook, Rachel Eddie, Kieran Rooney and Aisha Dow
Exclusive
Cancer
‘A crime against cancer knowledge’: World-class Victorian research suffers major budget blow
As cancer rates soar across Victoria, the state government has axed 75 per cent of the funding to the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance.
- by Henrietta Cook and Aisha Dow
Exclusive
Victorian budget
Sweeping hospital mergers on table after Victoria’s bad-news budget
Victoria’s 76 health services could be slashed to 12 in an efficiency-driven overhaul revealed as the government dropped a budget notable for soaring debt, higher taxes, stalled projects and abandoned promises.
- by Aisha Dow, Annika Smethurst and Kieran Rooney
Arden hospitals ditched over Metro Tunnel electromagnetic interference
Interference from the new Metro Tunnel station at Arden has forced the Victorian government to ditch a $5 billion plan to build new hospital campuses there.
- by Aisha Dow and Cara Waters
Exclusive
Advertising
‘Wild west’: The TikTok tanning ads breaching community standards
There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of other similar videos on social media, prompting leading advertising figures to call out marketing tactics lacking social responsibility.
- by Aisha Dow
Updated
COVID inquiry
Anguish for families as hotel quarantine case collapses, ‘no one held accountable’
No one will be held criminally responsible for a COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine that led to the death of 768 people and one of the world’s longest lockdowns.
- by Alex Crowe, David Estcourt and Aisha Dow