NOT ENOUGH DOCTORS FOR AUSTRALIA

And the triumph of feminism is largely to blame

"Ailing Australians may have to wait longer to see their regular general practitioner as doctors and medical students choose to work fewer hours as part of a fundamental shift in the medical profession, a new study has found. A two-year study published today in The Medical Journal of Australia found family and lifestyle will be just as important as medicine to the next generation of Australian doctors and many will opt to work part-time to accommodate their lifestyle. The move could force patients in need of immediate care to seek out other doctors. Researchers from the University of Newcastle and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners surveyed 130 students about how they would balance their careers as doctors with their family and private lives. Although women doctors already work fewer hours than male doctors, the reality is that many find the conflict between their roles as doctors, mothers and wives a significant source of stress," said author Helen Tolhurst, a postdoctoral research fellow in the university's discipline of General Practice. With women now making up 50 per cent of medical students, this is going to have a significant impact on the delivery of medical services in the future. But Dr Tolhurst said it was "not just the women" feeling that way. "Both sexes are concerned about the impact of vocational choice on family life and lifestyle - and this is borne out by our study," she said.

Australian Medical Association state president Dr William Heddle said the change in the make-up of medical students had led to doctors working "safer hours". "But we still need to graduate enough doctors to fill the workforce," he said. "Last year, you needed 1.7 graduates for one full-time equivalent doctor with the hours the graduates were working. This used to be about 0.7 for one full-time equivalent because everyone used to work 80 hours a week." He admitted it could be difficult for female medical students to balance specialist training careers with family life.

Australian Medical Students Association president Matthew Hutchinson said changes in the demographic of medical students "put the onus on the government to really think about workforce planning. Doctors used to work 60 or 70 hours a week but these days we are not going to get that," he said. "So we need a bigger medical workforce to plug those gaps." He said 76 per cent of first-year medical students at the University of Adelaide this year were female.

More here.




THE REALITY OF "UNIVERSAL" HEALTH COVERAGE

"A woman expecting her first child was told to drive more than 135km because the hospital in her home town had no anaesthetist on call to be at the birth. Mandy Schiller, 30, had planned to have her child in her local hospital but, with husband Geoff by her side, she was forced to stay at home before being told to drive to somewhere else.

Their experience is typical of the stress and trauma faced by country mothers. A survey released yesterday shows 45 per cent of women in rural NSW cannot give birth in their local areas because of a lack of specialist health services and staff. The survey released by the Gender, Women and Social Policy research group at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, found country women had trouble accessing GPs and health specialists, and were far behind their city cousins when it came to education, childcare, transport and mental health services.....

The couple eventually arrived at Wagga Base Hospital, with Mrs Schiller giving birth to son Nicholas, her first child, at 5.35am. She checked out at lunchtime that day to head back to Young. "I wanted to go home and check into Young Hospital so I could be near family and friends," Mrs Schiller said. "We've got a brand new hospital here and it seems totally stupid that I couldn't use it to have my baby. "The whole experience adds to the stress of giving birth for the first time, I know in my pre-natal classes the other mothers were very worried about it. Sometimes the anaesthetist is gone for a week at a time and if you're due that week what do you do?"

The couple's trauma is repeated on a daily basis across NSW, said Danette Watson from Maternity Coalition. "Perfectly healthy women are being forced to go out of town to give birth simply because of the shortage of full-time anaesthetists," she said. Southern Area Health Southern Slopes division general manager Margaret Gerkens said Young's single anaesthetist was not on duty that day and no locums were available."

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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