… Last Friday, Australian Doctor carried a report about the shortage of doctors in rural areas. One simplistic solution that has been offered is sending fledgling doctors (compulsorily) to the bush for a while – a poll had shown some support for this. The same has been mooted to help cope with the imminent flood of new graduates. I can see this as a recipe for disaster. …
Continue Reading Add comment May 7th, 2012
… Nor can we just plop new medical schools in the bush. Much of the current medical education is now jammed into 4 year graduate courses. The bulk of medical learning will always be self directed by seeing patients, discussing them with tutors and other students. Politicians rarely grasp this – that most tutoring by experienced practitioners is done for free. Doctors understand this and few eschew sharing their knowledge with students. The bulk of problem - based learning medical schools is tutored for free by senior practitioners, certainly in NSW anyway. I was such a tutor for a time. I enjoyed it immensely for it meant my own homework had to be done to keep abreast of the students. The included several foreign students who were paying thousands of dollars for their medical degree – I always pointed out that I received zero recompense for my efforts ! The point here is, we can’t just build some lecture rooms in a rural town and call it a medical school. For clinical teaching we need an existing corps of specialists and GPs already there in adequate numbers to guarantee comprehensive medical teaching. …
Continue Reading Add comment May 7th, 2012
WILKO REPORT EXTRA FOR TUESDAY APRIL 3rd 2012 ……..and while we all complain about AHPRA and the huge increase in registration fees for doctors, spare a thought for another group who are to be stung for annual fee: Marriage Celebrants.
Continue Reading Add comment April 20th, 2012
A “backsides on seats” mentality and poor government policy are to blame for a looming shortage of clinical placements for medical graduates, says the Australian Doctors’ Fund (ADF), a company that advocates for patients and doctors. … ADF executive director Stephen Milgate said steps taken over the past 10 years to beef up the nation’s doctor workforce by turning out more medical students from more medical schools had placed predictable pressure on internships. … “There has been a great desire from all universities and institutions to open a medical school and have it as a flagship,” Milgate told Campus Review. “The problem is they’ve been allowed to expand without a guaranteed training pathway. But you can’t blame the universities, because governments have encouraged this to expand the workforce.”
Continue Reading Add comment April 18th, 2012
Speech to the Senior Active Doctors Meeting by Stephen Milgate, Sunday 4/3/2012 @ 10.00 am
We need a registration system and health policies which encourage and facilitate the contribution of our senior doctors. Not one that seeks to eliminate them.
Continue Reading Add comment April 2nd, 2012
Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in Australia, yet the technology exists to detect bowel cancer early, which significantly increases the chances of survival.
Ten Australians die of bowel cancer every day; 70 every week. Up to a third of those deaths could be prevented if the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program was available to the recommended target group – everyone aged 50 and over, every two years.
Unfortunately, the free home test provided by the program is only available to people turning 50, 55 and 65 as a one-off test. Every day the Government delays expanding the program, more Australians whose lives could have been saved by an expanded program, die.
Continue Reading Add comment April 2nd, 2012
A Sydney meeting of doctors have voted 417-1 to oppose the removal of 1800 of their senior colleagues from the medical register from 1 July 2013.
The meeting held at St George Leagues Club on Sunday 4 March 2012 is part of a growing move by doctors to defend their senior colleagues’ right to be treated justly and fairly by the new national registration system introduced by former state governments and bureaucrats using the COAG process.
Continue Reading Add comment March 11th, 2012
A grave injustice is being perpetrated on 1800 Australian doctors.
They are to be thrown out of their profession from 1 July 2013 WHEN THE REGISTRATION CATEGORY “LIMITED REGISTRATION (Public interest Occasional Practice)” will end.
In addition to this group there are hundreds of other senior doctors who have been denied the right to apply for the occasional practice category from 1 July 2010.
What have these doctors done to deserve such draconian action?
They have served their profession with distinction over many years. They have used their extraordinary gifts of applying knowledge, skills and discretion to help relieve the suffering of thousands of patients. They have saved hundreds of lives.
Continue Reading Add comment March 11th, 2012
Urgent Meeting - Senior Active Doctors Medical registration campaign
Sunday, 4 March 2012 @ 10.00am - 11.15am sharp. St George Leagues Club (Mahogany Room), Princes Highway, Kogarah NSW
“What happens to colleagues who have given years of distinguished service to our profession is an issue for all doctors. Medical organisations forget this at their peril.”
Continue Reading Add comment February 22nd, 2012
The problem with corporatized medicine ( be it swallowed up by a corporate state, like British NHS, or by capitalist corporations) is that al the credit for good results is assumed by that corporate state or company. All too commonly, bad results are left on the shoulders of the doctors. Although the enemies of private medicine shriek that all protests from private doctors are “all about money”, this is not true. Many private doctors could have a less demanding life if they were simpy 9 to 5 employees rather than independent people dependent on individuals paying for their services. This may seem too simplistic an argument, but it is a plausible one. Most of us surrendered our youth to study and exams – an later asked sacrifices of spouses and families too, when Dr Dad or Dr Mum had to work so late, or was called away in the middle of birthday parties, school concerts etc etc. This is something we must not forget, and we must also put this simple observation to our students and junior doctors.
Continue Reading Add comment January 10th, 2012