I see Paul Henry is in trouble again. This time over suggesting that foreign doctors aren’t as good as those trained in New Zealand. I suspect he makes stupid comments like this deliberately, because he knows they are good for ratings. As a foreign-trained doctor myself, I find it hard to take offense at Henry’s [...]

Yesterday’s Herald contained a sad story about a young man who had been seen by the local mental health team, diagnosed him as potentially psychotic and prescribed an anti-psychotic. His counsellor later told him to stop taking the anti-psychotic and continue with counseling. He subsequently committed suicide. A young man committed suicide after his counsellor [...]

Found this in my e-mail today Hi Jim, I remember reading a while ago that you thought a medical ratings website might be a good idea. Well found this on trademe forum the other day, looks like its going to be a reality? http://www.medrate.co.nz Thanks Steve Sadly for Steve, I am generally not that much in favour of medical [...]

The MacDoctor often refers to the pharmacy as the $3 shop (All funded script items cost $3.00). And, yes, patients often stare at him blankly, but one has to get one’s fun from somewhere. A recent Herald article claims that this fee is sometimes too much for low-income people causing them not to pick up [...]

Once more the maternity system in New Zealand is under fire in the Dominion post, with a couple of articles involving the death of newborn babies. In the first article, the newborn died from haemorrhagic disease (excessive bleeding) because the parents refused to allow their child to have vitamin K. Too much internet disinformation can [...]

The Herald reports that a report by Martin Dawe of the first two weeks of the Swine Flu epidemic is intensely critical of the lack of planning and poor coordination of data resources. This was the MacDoctor’s impression of the entire debacle. I knew of a potentially deadly strain of Mexican flu three days before [...]

When a serious error is made in someone’s diagnosis, investigation or treatment, we really like to blame a health practitioner or two. In the Herald today, just such a diagnostic disaster is blamed on the DHB as Ron Paterson asks them to apologise for poor service. This is pretty unfair of Mr. Paterson as it [...]

Australia’s chief medical officer, Jim Bishop has announced that children under five years old should not receive the flu vaccine. Apparently at least 60 children under the age of 5 have had high fevers and 23 have had convulsions shortly after receiving the vaccine. I have not heard any advisory from the New Zealand authorities [...]

There seems to be quite a lot of debate around the subject of organ donation at the moment. The Herald today warns people off looking for “bootleg kidneys“. The university of Victoria ran a conference yesterday on the issue and Eric Crampton at Offsetting Behaviour has run a series of articles here, here and here. [...]

Two US surgeons have offered some commentary on Why US Healthcare Costs Are Out of Control. It is a highly revealing read. They cite six reasons: The Building of Shrines for Hospital Administrators – buildings constructed out of desire to make a mark rather than out of necessity. Unnecessary Duplication of Services – Often added under [...]