Good doctors destroyed by power-mad bureaucrats: "It's uncomfortable to hear Dr. Frank Fisher speak. His eyes are usually glassed over, seemingly on the verge of tears. ... As he talks, you get the impression that he's just a small dose of bad news away from shattering into a thousand pieces. And with good reason. Fisher, a Harvard-trained physician, once specialized in the treatment of chronic pain. He served a predominantly rural and poor population in California. About 5-10 percent of his 3,000 clients were pain patients, victims of illnesses like cancer, steep falls or car accidents. A little more than five years ago, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer initiated a high-profile campaign against pain doctors who prescribe high doses of opioids -- drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin and codeine. Lockyer made Frank Fisher his example."




NO FIX FOR AUSTRALIA'S PUBLIC HOSPITALS

Leftist promises won't help

"Labor's promise to inject $1 billion into public hospitals has drawn a mixed response from public hospital groups and the nation's most influential doctors' organisation. While public hospitals welcomed the plan as a necessary boost to a system under strain, the Australian Medical Association said the policy was based on "wrong assumptions about relieving the pressure on hospital emergency departments".....

The AMA - which earlier yesterday expressed "outrage" at "the gross misrepresentation" of doctors in Labor's television advertisements depicting an auction for a doctor's consultation - said it was not the co-ordinated policy that was needed. It was a shortage of hospital beds, not a shortage of general practitioner services, that was causing queues at public hospitals, the AMA vice president, Mukesh Haikerwal, said.....

The Australian Healthcare Association, representing about 500 public hospitals, said the Labor plan was "a great start" but it was disappointed it did not specifically tackle the need for more public hospital beds. "The declining bed numbers is the major reason for 'bed block' in hospital emergency departments, resulting in patients spending too long on trolleys waiting for admission," the association's executive director, Prue Power, said....

But the Australian Private Hospitals Association said the Labor focus was "too narrow" and ignored the private hospitals where most surgery was performed".

More here.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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