Comments on: Menadue: COAG’s billions are a wasted opportunity for health

By: greg mcfarlane

greg mcfarlane — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

...double dipping, sorry.....the surgeon refuses to see me. My experience is one of the better outcomes I am aware of . I don't want to jump on the fellow, we are all human and make mistakes, but one expects simple honesty in these situations.
Mr Menadue has accurately identified many of the problems in our health system. Howard and Woolridge gutting doctor training numbers was the first act of absolute negligence in the management of our health system under Howard...the first of many. Why was that done?
Doctors, as in the 19th century, are still a law unto themselves. Yes, many people have unrealistic expectations(watch too much bad american tv), but the facts speak for themselves.
A well known Briz surgeon removed the wrong limb from a patient. He was allowed to continue operating and then removed the wrong brain region in another patient leading to their death. 2 for 2, a needless double amputee and manslaughter. This fellow was so well connected, he remained operating. I believe a wrong leg then amputated was the straw that broke the camel's back. This chap has escaped sanction and naming, and still works as a consultant.
Iatragenic deaths in Oz last year.......can't tell you where I got this info, but a quality industry estmate of 50,000 a year in Oz is pretty close to the mark.
Good on you Crikey, and thank you Mr Menadue for at least attempting to keep the bastards honest..
I don't like your chances of demanding accountability from a profession who are a law unto themselves and,. who, labour under often unrealistic outcome expectations from patients.
I can tell as many good medical stories as bad, but without transparency and sensible accountability the system will, as it has for some years, continue to deteriorate.
cheers.greg.

By: gregmcfarlane

gregmcfarlane — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

September 2003, diagnosed with a critical collapse of lumbar spine + complications, 2 years of double sided sciatica and occassional paralysis and loss of all feeling and function, led my GP(a fabulous bloke and doctor) to have me admitted to Royal Brisbane Hospital.
I arrived with all my clinical notes, x-rays etc, and an admission request letter. After 7 hours on a trolley in various corridors, I was processed through the Emergency Department. At 2am I was told by a 1st year intern( to be fair, under enormous pressure due to the arrival of numerous victims of a major MVA), that, and I quote, “you are a fucking malingerer and if you do not leave now we will call the police”.
Stunned and with no money (pensioner) as I expected to be admitted, I was left to walk and crawl 4 miles to my home….that took 9 hours. Appealing to a specialist friend, the next day an MRI was done and I was admitted at another hospital, RPA, where I spent the bulk of the next 4 months and had 6 inches of my Lumbar spine removed. An active infection (to this day unidentified and prior to surgery misdiagnosed by the surgeon but not by my chiropractor), meant a 4 hour operation became 9.5 …. I woke up on the table due to the misdiagnosis and the dangers of continued anaesthesia.
The next morning a member of the surgical team I had developed a friendship with, came to my bedside and , again I quote, told me, ” We fucked it up greg. The diagnosis was wrong, your mate was right, the infection was live and the work that has been done is a hodge podge which will mean you face some pretty serious ongoing problems”. That gentleman was a foreign surgeon about to return to his own country and unconcerned by potential consequences of his honesty.
To this day I am on morphine for pain, have massively compromised mobility and lifestyle/quality, and cannot find a surgeon who will work on me. Everybody tells me I must go back to the man who fucked it up so badly in the first place.
no letters left……

By: David Christie

David Christie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I graduated in Medicine 49 years ago and spent a lot of that time in Public Health and Community Medicine. I think that experience, and the status of Emeritus Professor (albeit like all old epidemiogists broken down by age and sex) qualifies me to give my total support to John Menadue and IMHO he is right on the money. Bitter experience however tells me that the opposition is such as to win every battle – as it ever has and, possibly, ever shall do.

By: Embi

Embi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I am a reasonably well-paid professional with private health insurance that will almost certainly be using the public system when I give birth next year. Why? I would much rather be in a large hospital surrounded by specialists in case something goes wrong during or shortly after the birth than some place masquerading as a hotel that doesn't have specialised neo-natal facilities. Two, while I would love continuity of care, I cannot justify the $3000+ I would be out of pocket for having my own doctor - who might be replaced by another doctor anyway if I should inconveniently go into labour on the weekend or a public holiday. And Three, despite all the horror stories one hears, I have in the past experienced far more professional personal medical care by doctors and nurses in the public system than in the money-making private sector. And for me, that is far more important than aesthetically pleasing surroundings.

Actually, as I have the private health insurance, the public hospital will probably have me sign a document so it can squeeze some much needed additional funds out of my insurance company so I will technically be a private patient - but not one footing an additional $3000 bill.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine was until recently working as a nurse specialising in cardiology.

He quit after 4 years, having become entirely disillusioned with the job because Cardiologists (doctors) would convince patients they needed surgery in their last months of life, to extend their life, in many cases by very small amounts.

My friend would hear from the patient and/or their family that they wanted to die at home. What would happen is that the doctor would talk them into surgery and they would end up having to die in hospital, many in great pain because of complications, all to get a few day, weeks or maybe a month or two of extra life, connected to machines. All when this was not what the patient and their families wanted in the first place.

Of course, the Doctors made lots of money out of the surgery, which would also then cost the public system hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra, mostly unwanted and unjustified support services.

Left alone, many of theses people would have died maybe a little earlier, but happily and peacefully at home with their families.

A debate on the desperate need to extend life at all costs is a debate we need to have in Australia. I personally do not want my life extended if the quality of life is to be markedly less.