Serving the Community – Risk vs Reward – April 2017

On the eve of our first Doctors Drum meeting of 2017, we received 135 responses from GPs and Specialists within the three-day window. Thanks to those who took part. Many of them made comments and gave some great insight into what life is like in modern day medicine.

Do you believe the political persuasion of the Health Minister has more influence than his/her personal abilities?

ED. It appears most doctors believe politics will be put ahead of personal ability in addressing health issues. Given that hospital funding is the big ticket item for states, Roger Cook may have some decisions ahead of him around rationing of services (see next response) that most doctors will be sceptical of.

How much do you identify with this statement: “One of the biggest problems facing the Health Minister is that growing health demands will outstrip supply.”

Are doctors prone to burnout, more so than many other professions?

ED. What is it about doctoring that fosters burnout these days? Or is it the type of doctor?

How important is the doctor’s work-life balance in determining how much they can serve the community?

ED. The vast majority of responses seem to say, anyone who devotes 100% of their efforts to work cannot serve the community well.

Should medical education rely less on hospital training?

Are new doctors adequately trained to tackle today’s problems in the community?

ED. It would be interesting to see community views on this! But choice of careers for doctors is one area the community should not have a say, according to most of our respondent doctors (see next question).

Should the community have more say in what areas junior doctors focus their career?

Is the profession attracting people, more than it should, who are less resilient under pressure?

In general terms, what place should medical research take in health funding?

ED. Most respondents gave medical research 3rd or 2nd place for funding allocation, and we cannot give the Specialist-GP split on responses, which would interest us all, sorry.