The Dom Post has run a series of articles on New Zealand doctors earning up to $8000 a weekend doing locum work in Australia. The MacDoctor is uncertain why this might be considered news as this practice has been going on for years. The take on the articles is that the doctors in question might [...]
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 [...]
New Zealand is now contemplating using the same set of incentives to boost immunisation rates that Australia used to boost it’s rates from 50% to 91%. The MacDoctor is not convinced that New Zealanders will respond quite as well as Australians to the incentives. The incentives were: Cash payments to parents for completing immunisations at [...]
In the Herald today: Dr Penelope Briscoe, dean of the faculty of pain medicine at Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), says reform is needed to curb the illicit use and sale of powerful prescription medicines. I view statements like this with some trepidation. I don’t know how it is in Australia, but, [...]
The old doctor’s line of “take two aspirins and call me in the morning” may well be coming back into fashion again soon. It seems that the American FDA has it’s eyes on paracetamol-containing products and now the Australians are following suit. Paracetamol (Panadol, Pamol et al)can cause fatal liver damage if taken in overdose. [...]
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. (MacDoctor definition) Here is a sample of politically biased spam. While I consider this a spam article because it contains only political innuendo, I concede that some left wingers may consider it actual fact. But it’s not my fault you [...]
That is the death-toll so far from the bush fires in Victoria. Like all natural disasters, it is horrible beyond imagining. It is a sobering reminder that man’s seeming control over nature is entirely illusory. But what is truly frightening is not the ferocity of the disaster nor the extent of it. What is truly [...]
