July 2007
Rate your mates
In the tradition of popular websites such as "Rate Your Teacher.com", new website "Rate MDs.com" has been franchised into Australia from the US (where else?). The site encourages patients to rate their doctors on a scale of 1 to 5 on their punctuality, helpfulness, and knowledge. According to the Herald Sun, 270,000 US doctors have been rated on the site and some have sued patients for libel because of less-than-flattering comments. As of this writing (late June), six WA GPs and one surgeon had been rated by their patients. Five scored perfectly on all counts (showing there is such a thing as the perfect doctor!) while one GP was given a "grumpy face" score of 2 out of 5. Draw your own conclusions at http://au.ratemds.com.
Samples at the door, kids
Drug testing is in vogue. Random screening is the norm in the mining industry and the AFL has come under pressure from the government to tighten its testing procedures (Ben Cousins, anyone?). In turn (and in spite), the AFL players association proposed random drug testing of pollies and bureaucrats. But is drug testing in the wider community such a ludicrous idea? Perth doctor George O'Neil doesn't think so. George sees the pointy end of drugs through his addiction treatment clinic and has called for high school students to be regularly screened for drugs. ‘Ice' and amphetamines are rampant on our streets and yet the best the government can come up with is this month's drug summit. How about less talk and more action?
HDWA's dirty linen
Keeping its dirty linen well out of sight seems to be the WA Health Department's favoured approach ...
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