I love healthcare...Post op I see my specialist, after having seen my GP, my specialist says I need a couple of exercise stress tests, and can I pay him $106.75 for the expert way in which he told me something my GP could have told me.

I feel like I am being legally fleeced.

Stop the corrupt practices of specialists !

Western red welcome to the co-payment system that fleeces your fiances and this is what is being suggested as a way of helping to solve Australias hospital crisis.

The concept of triage has been around for many years and is used in most emergency or outpatient situations. The problems with triage is that rules are made with regards treatment priority and decisions made using these rules can have heart breaking results for those on the wrong side of the line in the sand. A typical example of this is the incident at RNS hospital where a woman miscarried in the toilet.

The further extension of this is the allocation of more complicated procedures on a needs basis. The world is a cruel place, there are infinite needs and limited resources. The access of an individual to state sponsored treatment depends on where the line in the sand is, which depends on the resources available.

The resources available depend on the perceived desire of the people to forgo money in the pocket (reduction in taxes) to create a larger safety blanket.

WesternRed above is both right and wrong. The specialist that saw him post op and gave him the advice that a GP or even a nurse could have given forgets that the specialist is really there for the 10% of the time when things are not as planned pretty much like insurance is a waste of money if you never crash your car.

The question is how much insurance do you want?