When patients stroke our ego, do we end up treating them or serving ourselves?
We all have rusted-on patients, and our interactions with them differ depending on that complex flux between what they think they want and what we…
Medical Observer
Unique doctor-written opinion and analysis
We should not allow private insurers to fund GP consultations
Australia’s second-largest private health insurer, Bupa, has recently started offering its members three free GP telehealth consultations a year. This follows other insurers, such as nib, offering…
The AMA is wrong — the medical board must make cognitive screening of older doctors mandatory
I am a middle-aged GP. As such, I have a while to go before I am likely to be subject to the mandatory health check…
General practice is crying out for a social media hero
You do not have to do an opinion poll to know that people have no idea what we do. If you asked the general public,…
‘Don’t tell them I told you’: How to deal with unsolicited patient information from third parties
“Dad’s actually an alcoholic. He shouldn’t be on the road. But he never tells you this stuff. He just says he’s great. Make sure you…
Are doctors’ rego and indemnity fees really an extortionate rip-off?
AusDoc recently published the results of a survey designed to determine the annual running costs of being a doctor. That is, the up-front, out-of-pocket expenses,…
Why doctors are from Mars and patients are from Venus
Doctors are from Mars, patients are from Venus. It sounds like a play on Dr John Gray’s brilliant book from 1992, but from our medical…
If I were a young GP, I couldn’t survive on bulk-billing without sausage-machine medicine or cheating the system
Why is 100% bulk-billing by GPs considered the Holy Grail for healthcare in Australia? We pay for food, water, clothing and shelter, which we need…
$500 for a nurse to pass a sandwich? The extravagant waste in our health system
Over the course of my life, I have seen basic office procedures increasingly move to hospital-only settings. Personally, I recall having a sigmoidoscopy in the…
We are losing treatment options: Why doctors need to fight back against the never-ending drug shortages
These are difficult times. As clinicians, we not only need to know all the medications prescribed within our scope of practice, but to recognise which…
