Issues with Oz Medicine and a Potential Medical Practitioner meet-up

[rechoboam]

Actuallly, there is a lot of truth in the above. My (simplistic) solution to healthcare in Australia is to have government (federal), not state and federal, managing health, get rid of all the private hospitals (they just cherry pick the easy cases), increase the medicare levy, and to have a means tested user pay system (with annual caps) for all health matters, allocation of only one GP that you can see, and you can only change for a number of valid reasons.....don't want to debate this online but happy to discuss over a drink or two

I don't want to get into a massive debate but my two cents: we do EVERY type of surgery in private with the SOLE exception of solid organ transplants. No cherry picking and no 3 year waiting lists. We do more and we do it cheaper; we have more fun, we are more productive and we love looking after our patients and sending them out fixed.

I also work in the public system...

If you compare my day in public and my day in private I can assure you you would know why getting rid of the former would make no sense!

 

[Princess Fiona]

I don't want to get into a massive debate but my two cents: we do EVERY type of surgery in private with the SOLE exception of solid organ transplants. No cherry picking and no 3 year waiting lists. We do more and we do it cheaper; we have more fun, we are more productive and we love looking after our patients and sending them out fixed.

I also work in the public system...

If you compare my day in public and my day in private I can assure you you would know why getting rid of the former would make no sense!

Fair point but unfortunately kpc is not just referring to elective surgery.
To get back on-topic as off-topic I regularly see many patients with mental health problems who have exhausted their private health funds allocation and need to fallback on the public system for ongoing care.
There are no easy answers and there are professionals in both public and private trying to do their best with limited resources.

 

[kpc]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Fair point but unfortunately kpc is not just referring to elective surgery.

Exactly...

There are no easy answers and there are professionals in both public and private trying to do their best with limited resources.

Agree 100%

I don't want to get into a massive debate..

We need to meet for a drink...

 

[drron]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Actuallly, there is a lot of truth in the above. My (simplistic) solution to healthcare in Australia is to have government (federal), not state and federal, managing health, get rid of all the private hospitals (they just cherry pick the easy cases), increase the medicare levy, and to have a means tested user pay system (with annual caps) for all health matters, allocation of only one GP that you can see, and you can only change for a number of valid reasons.....don't want to debate this online but happy to discuss over a drink or two

Sorry in our area if it wasn't for the Private Hospitals public medicine would be in a sorry state.Coronary angiography has been available privately for at least 10 years,angioplasty for~5 years.Public patients have accessed these services.Uncomplicated coronary angiography has only been offered at the public hospital since April this year.

I don't know enough about the industry to have such a debate, so a discussion over a drink would be much better. But you're probably hitting a key point that we really should get rid of one level of government.

Absolutely.I am a great supporter of getting rid of State Govenments.Too much unnecessary duplication of services.

I don't want to get into a massive debate but my two cents: we do EVERY type of surgery in private with the SOLE exception of solid organ transplants. No cherry picking and no 3 year waiting lists. We do more and we do it cheaper; we have more fun, we are more productive and we love looking after our patients and sending them out fixed.

I also work in the public system...

If you compare my day in public and my day in private I can assure you you would know why getting rid of the former would make no sense!

I think you mean getting rid of the latter!Yes I now locum both privately and in the public system.The work loads are incomparable.Currently privately I am doing 10 stress tests in a day finishing often by 1300.Publicly I can be limited to 2 a day-and they wonder why there is a waiting list?
I agree we should try and arrange an AFF medical meetup.We should solve Australia's health problems in an evening!

 

[rechoboam]

Fair point but unfortunately kpc is not just referring to elective surgery.

Neither am I, in fact I have spent much of this week doing on call operations in private past midnight. We have emergency departments, ICUs and many very elderly and very sick inpatients who require emergency care. It is understandable if people have preconceived notions about what we do in the private sector as it is pretty sheltered from public view.

My original point is that saying all this shouldn't exist and should be shut down because that would help some failing public hospital is not very realistic.

 

[drron]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Fair point but unfortunately kpc is not just referring to elective surgery.
To get back on-topic as off-topic I regularly see many patients with mental health problems who have exhausted their private health funds allocation and need to fallback on the public system for ongoing care.
There are no easy answers and there are professionals in both public and private trying to do their best with limited resources.

However as a General Physician working in small regional public hospitals I often find the responsibility for treating those with mental health problems becomes mine as the public mental health services really dont want to be involved in hospital treatment hence often explaining some of the complaints made here-to access the Community Mental Heath Services you have to be in the community.
I do agree though it is extremely variable and there are some wonderful mental health workers out there.

 

[anat0l]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Getting rid of layers of governments.... goes completely against the governmental systems we inherited from Mother England, and copied frequently through the Western world.

What makes it worse is not that there are multiple levels of governments with an uneven and bad distribution and demarcation of responsibilities, but that each level of governance (local, state and federal) sees some imperative in rigorously defending its right to exist, at the expense of recognising that the nation is more important than the sum of its components.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Neither am I, in fact I have spent much of this week doing on call operations in private past midnight. We have emergency departments, ICUs and many very elderly and very sick inpatients who require emergency care. It is understandable if people have preconceived notions about what we do in the private sector as it is pretty sheltered from public view.

My original point is that saying all this shouldn't exist and should be shut down because that would help some failing public hospital is not very realistic.

Admittedly I have a fairly jaundiced perspective on the ability of the private system to deal with emergency cases.
That stems from my real life experience of triple zero transfers of critically ill inpatients from private hospitals to my department for resuscitation, the not infrequent Friday afternoon call prior to a long weekend from Dr Moneybags CMO in Bupaland Private stating that Mr Scrote is becoming very unwell and requires transfer to your hospital for further management.
I appreciate that my experience may not mirror yours but nonetheless the public system cannot say no and the private system can and does.

 

[rechoboam]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Admittedly I have a fairly jaundiced perspective on the ability of the private system to deal with emergency cases.
That stems from my real life experience of triple zero transfers of critically ill inpatients from private hospitals to my department for resuscitation, the not infrequent Friday afternoon call prior to a long weekend from Dr Moneybags CMO in Bupaland Private stating that Mr Scrote is becoming very unwell and requires transfer to your hospital for further management.
I appreciate that my experience may not mirror yours but nonetheless the public system cannot say no and the private system can and does.

I'm sure that's true but luckily not part of my life. The big quality private hospitals have spectacular plans over the next decade or two and for better or worse will be leaving the public system in their wake. Probably doing quite a bit of public work under contract I imagine.

And drron do PM me if you are in Melbourne. I'll be in Brisbane QP for an hour or two on the 20th...

 

[beardoc]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

I'm entirely up for a AFF medical meet. It could be fun. We seem to have a range of experiences and perspectives, and that could make it very interesting. I've been wanting to add all the doctors from here on Facebook, but I've been loathe to just friend you all cold.

My perspectives are a little divided - I've seen a number of interesting projects within Private Hospitals, including one that employed a supernumerary anaesthetic registrar that could expose themselves to any list they liked in the Hospital providing they would come to cover Epidurals when there was no anaesthetist available during business hours. On the other hand, I've seen private hospitals take only the fit and healthy patients and refuse the private patients that are unwell for the public hospitals. I've seen private hospitals have on-call only to deal with inpatient emergencies and when it gets too hard, they dump on the public system. And few private hospitals have comprehensive night and weekend care. I suspect our different perspectives come from our varying workloads in public and private systems.

Oh, one thing - a private aeromedical retrieval system would never be adequately funded - those things unfortunately have to stay public (or charity!).

 

[rechoboam]

I'm entirely up for a AFF medical meet. It could be fun. We seem to have a range of experiences and perspectives, and that could make it very interesting. I've been wanting to add all the doctors from here on Facebook, but I've been loathe to just friend you all cold.

My perspectives are a little divided - I've seen a number of interesting projects within Private Hospitals, including one that employed a supernumerary anaesthetic registrar that could expose themselves to any list they liked in the Hospital providing they would come to cover Epidurals when there was no anaesthetist available during business hours. On the other hand, I've seen private hospitals take only the fit and healthy patients and refuse the private patients that are unwell for the public hospitals. I've seen private hospitals have on-call only to deal with inpatient emergencies and when it gets too hard, they dump on the public system. And few private hospitals have comprehensive night and weekend care. I suspect our different perspectives come from our varying workloads in public and private systems.

Oh, one thing - a private aeromedical retrieval system would never be adequately funded - those things unfortunately have to stay public (or charity!).

coordinating our schedules would be a challenge but absolutely, I would be there

 

[KitKat]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

coordinating our schedules would be a challenge but absolutely, I would be there

Maybe there is a need to start a new thread....

 

[beardoc]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Maybe there is a need to start a new thread....

Anyone want to do the honours? I will if no-one else does.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Anyone want to do the honours? I will if no-one else does.

If you do I'll be the 2IC

 

[drron]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

If you do I'll be the 2IC

I'd rather not sit in 21C!

 

[serfty]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Mods can move the posts - can the 1IC / 2IC advise which posts would constitute the new thread ...

 

[straitman]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Can we now go back off topic.

I find that some personal opinions on mental health being presented here as fact very misleading and ill informed.

No problem in having an opinion but we need to remember to keep the opinions and the facts separated and that has not happened here IMHO. The perspective appears to have been lost by a few.

 

[whatmeworry]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

Can we now go back off topic.

I find that some personal opinions on mental health being presented here as fact very misleading and ill informed.

No problem in having an opinion but we need to remember to keep the opinions and the facts separated and that has not happened here IMHO. The perspective appears to have been lost by a few.

Sorry straitman, but what are you alluding too? You have used a wide ranging statement against many members that have an opinion regarding mental health services in Australia. If you think some of the statements were cough/bull****/rubbish then you should have pointed out each inaccurate statement with proper informed fact. Just remember 20% of Australians will require some type mental health service in their life time, so nearly every member will have a perspective on this issue whether it affect them or a family member or a friend.

 

[markis10]

Sorry straitman, but what are you alluding too? You have used a wide ranging statement against many members that have an opinion regarding mental health services in Australia. If you think some of the statements were cough/bull****/rubbish then you should have pointed out each inaccurate statement with proper informed fact. Just remember 20% of Australians will require some type mental health service in their life time, so nearly every member will have a perspective on this issue whether it affect them or a family member or a friend.

Did you miss the part about going back off topic while driving your cart? This is not the place to have a serious discussion on mental health, end of story.

 

[serfty]

Anyone want to do the honours? I will if no-one else does.

Thread created, ove to #1 / # 2 for arrangemnets.

I think that you and I are on the same page

EDIT: Might just be me but we are veering very close to needing a new thread here

Yep - On Topic posts moved here ...