Your Doctor - an opinion I think worth considering

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

somethings wrong with the system......$500k plus free new home wont get you a doctor in Julia Ck.....

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Not Julia Creek, but done similar.
60-80-100 hours per week.
On call 24/7.
Called out at 2 am for several hours….doesn’t matter, still gotta turn up at 8 am for ward rounds, outpatients, emergencies, etc. Same next night. Every night. 6 weeks straight.
Wife has a career…. forget about that. Not much call for her qualifications out here.
Kids? **** them off to boarding school.
Do this 6 weeks straight, then you get a week off - if they can get somebody to cover for you. If not, tough titties, you stay.
If you have anything in the tank left for “leisure”, what’s it gonna cost to fly yourself, the missus, and kids somewhere for a week of rest? 3 days winding down, one day maybe to relax, then 3 days winding up for the return to another 6 weeks.
Don’t blame them nowadays… I wouldn’t do it for a million. Was a lot lot lot less back in my day.
Was considered a “rite of passage” back then. Supposedly made you a better doc. Yeah, right.
Absolutely admire my colleagues in the bush who have done it year after year for decades. I couldn’t.
Now retired. Done and dusted.

From your experience Ron , what can or should be done to arrest this almost emergency situation from becoming worse?

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

From your experience Ron , what can or should be done to arrest this almost emergency situation from becoming worse?

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So many things need to be done, changes need to be made, and it’s going to cost a lot of money, and take a lot of will by all governments - Federal and State - to make the changes.
And it’s going to take a long time. Years.
There will be Enquiries and Commissions and Reports.
We’ve seen in the media this last week that Medicare is in all sorts of strife. It needs significant change, but for decades there has been little appetite on the part of politicians of any persuasion to enact change because of the “sacred cow” that Medicare has become to Australians. Sadly the poor old cow has been milked for too long by governments, some unscrupulous providers, and even unprincipled patients, and has no more milk to give.
The cost of improving the system will be enormous.
How would Aussies feel about increasing the Medicare levy from the current 2% to 10 or 15% on top of their taxable income, which might come close to the true cost of the health system. Ouch.

Change to our health system won’t be easy, and it won’t be soon. Definitely won’t be cheap.

And I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

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Originally Posted by RHS58

Don’t blame them nowadays…
Was considered a “rite of passage” back then. Supposedly made you a better doc. Yeah, right.
.

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Yeah right!!! 100% agree
Just like in New Zealand when you trained, do 80 to maybe 120 hours in the hospital, dog tired, how many "mistakes" were made? quite a few, Push back and the older Doctors would say " we did it, did us no harm" so you need to do it also....
For so called highly educated people a lot of the senior doctors had no common sense or understanding of the human condition

Fatigue management policy at Qld Health not too many years ago was “drink more coffee”…
You would have been desperate to drink their Hospital Blend.

Don't quote me, but I think I read the 2% Medicare levy covers about half the cost of Medicare. I'd be happy to see it double, on the basis the money was going to public health, a worthy cause.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RHS58

So many things need to be done, changes need to be made, and it’s going to cost a lot of money, and take a lot of will by all governments - Federal and State - to make the changes.
And it’s going to take a long time. Years.
There will be Enquiries and Commissions and Reports.
We’ve seen in the media this last week that Medicare is in all sorts of strife. It needs significant change, but for decades there has been little appetite on the part of politicians of any persuasion to enact change because of the “sacred cow” that Medicare has become to Australians. Sadly the poor old cow has been milked for too long by governments, some unscrupulous providers, and even unprincipled patients, and has no more milk to give.
The cost of improving the system will be enormous.
How would Aussies feel about increasing the Medicare levy from the current 2% to 10 or 15% on top of their taxable income, which might come close to the true cost of the health system. Ouch.

Change to our health system won’t be easy, and it won’t be soon. Definitely won’t be cheap.

And I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

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somethings way out of wack here.....

our "new" government , after all its pre election bull**** about the state of the planet , just gave a massive injection to the very industries which are affecting our ongoing health , which is why we have a medicare system in place.

why couldn"t 10% of the grant go to help straighten out the problems in our medical system instead of contributing to the profits of the companies causing the problems in the first place.

I know this is a bit political , but if it gets put into CA then most wont see it .....

Firstly - I have been watching this thread since inception
Biting my tongue. My feeling is the AULRO family quite likely has many more players deep on the inside of healthcare delivery than it appears in this thread.
(Thanks to NavyDiver and RHS58 for their insider trading!)

At this point I’ll just say my family and I are not currently living and working in the middle of the Torres Strait for the beach sunsets.

The public / private health model in Australia is incredibly complex and also an Australians perspective is very very location dependent. I have a pretty good handle on the Qld landscape and some idea of remote healthcare in NT and WA but would not comment on southern state services as my experience from
There is well aged!

The one point I do want to make is - despite the problems / issues / rorts / challenges & cost over runs. And not diminishing the distressing personal stories of substandard care outlined in this thread.

The Australian system as a whole - looked at with a wide lens performs admirably when you compare and account for:

-Small population base spread across a wide brown land.
-World class emergent care for ALL (there are exceedingly few nations where a citizen (or non citizen) living 1000km from a specialist cardiologist or surgeon having a life altering medical emergency would/ could receive the standard of care that an Australian really takes for granted)
-multi layered primary health system leading to a robust service across the community
-on world standards a pretty good mental health system
-a developing disability scheme that has potential to support the disadvantaged in ways unimaginable 50-100 years ago

Now don’t get me wrong - sitting around a fire I’ll rip the system to pieces and probably have too many ideas and suggestions too be helpful

But sometimes a step back and looking at what we have and appreciating the benefits can be helpful

Steve