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Masked men with dogs outside of GP clinics?

This is just a very quick post on matters of public policy. I wanted to voice my ongoing displeasure with the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and their seeming inability to separate self-interest with the interests of Australians more broadly.

I think (actually, I know), the key thing that frustrates me with this organisation is their constant refrain that “we care, we’re doctors, we help people” as if they practice their profession out of the goodness of their heart. Don’t come the raw prawn fellas, doctors are actually pretty well compensated for the hours that they work. They also work in what must be the most highly protected industry in the entire country. There would be unions across the country that would love having the power to bully and intimidate ‘bosses’ in the way that the AMA regularly does.

Anyway, I am glad that we are starting to have this debate. I can only hope that the fact that the AMA appears to have ‘declared war’ on the Commonwealth Government might mean that they cop the sort of structural reform that every other industry copped twenty years ago.

If you are so inclined, there is some interesting back and forth at both Larvatus Prodeo and Gary Sauer-Thompson's Weblog.

Comments

freefalling said…
Finding it hard to slag off doctors at the moment.
Looks like the husband has caught "the cancer" again for the third time.
Bastard.
Pretty cancer hospital pictures here:
http://tinyurl.com/4d4j6u
Kris McCracken said…
It's not really the doctors as individuals so much as the AMA as the collective voice of doctors. The latest stories that angers me about AMA practices comes from frustrated doctors, so there must be some good ones out there! :)

I did see that post (and your earlier one). What an absolute prick that is.

What I said on your blog times 100.

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