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 [...]

I blame the feral response to National’s announcement – that they will not be dropping the legal blood alcohol limit to 0.05 g% – squarely on the media. I am certain that it is the media’s propensity always to give the maximum amount of airtime and newsprint to the most hysterical over-reaction that encourages people [...]

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 [...]

There is much commentary in the blogosphere about the rather poignant letter of Dr. John Pollock to the New Zealand Doctor magazine advocating euthanasia. Dr Pollock is dying from terminal malignant melanoma. While I very much empathise with Dr. Pollock, I think neither he, nor the blogosphere supporters of euthanasia, actually understand the implication of [...]

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 [...]

Apparently there is a war on obesity. Trouble is, there does not seemed to be a well-defined enemy in this war. Is it the fast food industry? Perhaps it is the actual fat in foods? Maybe it is the obese person themselves? Or their wicked, neglectful parents? Or perhaps it is carbohydrates, not fats, that [...]

Until this morning, I did not know who Peter Snell was. I was, therefore, somewhat surprised to see a large front page spread in the Weekend Herald getting all excited about a 71-year-old man having heart disease. It seemed to me to be somewhat reminiscent of the famous “cat stuck in tree” line. I was [...]

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 [...]