david f

fair point David f my apologies. I do however view things as a blessing rather than 'entitlement'. That creates a myriad of wrong attitude.

I think Nurses need much support and get paid at the same level as Doctors. There will be much more productivity and a lot more people to do the job. We provide the same service as Doctors so shouldn't we get paid the same. I've been working as a nurse for many years now in sydney and it's a very demanding job. It took be years to complete my university degree and it was very challenging just like a medical degree would be. I think education is important and it should be spread to potential nurses out there.

Contact me with Genuinely@yahoo.com.au to put your name down to support this further. It's all about humanity.

Sennur Goktas
Sydney NSW

Sennur – I have a better suggestion. What say we pay doctors less and get more of them? It will make the system more affordable and increase services.

Who put up the cash for your degree?

It might be news to you there is a lot of very demanding jobs just as important out there and they don’t get anywhere near as much as you do now.

It’s all about the cash, humanity is not purchased.

David, there are three problems for the medical workforce in Australia, neither of which is related to an inadequate number of doctors.

The first is poor distribution of doctors across specialties. Some specialisations have far too many practitioners, while some have difficulty attracting enough.

The second is the poor geographical distribution of practitioners of all kinds. Capital cities are more attractive locations to practise than regional areas; welthy parts of town are more attractive than the fringe and low-SES areas.

The third is that about half of the doctors we train are women and they will, on average, work for fewer hours in a week than their male peers (about 80% as many, on average) and work for fewer years in their lifetime (about 65% as many FTE years, on average). They will also choose general practise over specialisation much more frequently and be less flexible in where they practise.

If you're interested, look up the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee and Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee reports. They're interesting, if somewhat depressing reading.

The AMA doesn't have much to do with it.

I'll have a look at the AEI involvement in Australia, but at first blush I think you're taking a US-centric view that reflects your own heritage rather more than is strictly justified.

I second your motion davidf, though I also have a problem with "adequate". What's wrong with "equal"?
Australians should be privy to equal education and healthcare. There should be no private option, unless the well-to-do are willing to provide their own infrastructure, research and practitioners. But private privilege rides on the back of public investment.
If all we had was public education and healthcare, the taxes would be gladly provided to make it world's best practice.

Dear Squeers,

What's wrong with equal is that it could mean inadequate for everybody.