The ABC’s Ockham’s Razor Does Health!

The last two weeks aspects of health have been the topic in Ockham’s Razor – the quarter hour chat on matters needing some clarity – on Sundays at 8.45am on ABC Radio National.

Both left me gasping and really should be read (or listened to for the next week or two) by all those wanting some background to the more perfidious side of the ‘Health Industry’.

Sunday 14 October 2007

Listen Now - 14102007 | Download Audio - 14102007

The pharmaceutical industry and doctors' prescribing habits

Professor Christopher Nordin, AO, who is Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide and a consultant physician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, discusses the influence the pharmaceutical industry has on doctors' prescribing habits. Read Transcript

Professor Nordin did not address a topic we did not know about – but his last paragraph makes a telling point as does much that precedes it.

I quote

“In this talk I have tended to blame the pharmaceutical companies for their undue influence on prescribing. It could be argued, however, that they are only doing their duty to their shareholders by maximising their profits; it is as much the fault of the medical profession, some say, in allowing itself to be manipulated. I asked a lawyer whether it is the briber or the bribed who commits the offence of bribery. 'Both', he replied. Perhaps that sums it up.”

Well worth a read or listen. The week before we had:

Sunday 07 October 2007

Listen Now - 07102007 | Download Audio - 07102007

Overseas trained doctors

Emeritus Professor of General Practice at the University of Western Australia, Max Kamien, looks at the history of overseas trained doctors (OTD) in Australia and the difficulties they faced, and still face to some extent, to be able to practice medicine in this country. Read Transcript

All I can say is that hearing what was presented I am glad I am not, nor never was, a member of the AMA!

A few selected paragraphs will whet the appetite!

“This anti-German feeling was rekindled in the 1930s when several thousand Jewish doctors fled Nazi Europe. Most went to the United Kingdom and the USA where they were able to practice. A small number came to Australia.

They had a hard time obtaining medical registration.

They arrived on German passports and were classified as 'enemy aliens'.

Although most spoke three or more European languages, English was not one of them.

They were broke.

Anti-Semitism was rife and overtly expressed. The then Director-General of Health and Medical Services in Queensland, Sir Raphael Cilento wrote: 'The Britisher is an individualist ... the Jew has 2000 years of servility behind him. If refugee doctors were permitted to go taking jobs along the Queensland coast, they would create the same situation that caused them to be thrown out of Germany and Austria.'

These doctors could seek requalification at one of the four university medical schools.

Melbourne University demanded they repeat the whole medical course. Gaining admission to University of Queensland was close to impossible. Adelaide and Sydney Universities required at OTD to repeat the last three clinical years.”

And

“Were some of the 1939 'letters to the editor' of the Medical Journal of Australia to be published today, the authors would certainly be prosecuted under the Race Relations Act. This example from a Macquarie Street specialist, Dr Maxwell, illustrates my point.

'Are these refugee aliens trained to our standards? Will they stay in unattractive outback centres? These newcomers will deliberately circumvent the restrictions in some surreptitious un-British way. Impudence implies dishonesty. Can their identity and the authenticity of their diplomas be established? I am sure not.

'I know the technique of these alien people. They will use their un-British European standard of ethics to insinuate themselves in our people's confidence. Our profession will not benefit, nor the public. All will suffer.'

That is an example of the sort of letter that was written.

Even doctors sympathetic to the plight of the Jewish refugee doctors were more than a little condescending. Dr Barrett of Adelaide wrote:

'They should be treated with consideration and courtesy. I, myself, placed one MD (Vienna) as a waiter in a seaside resort and have helped others become partially trained nurses.'

The treatment of the pre- and post-war medical practitioners was not the AMA's finest hour. For those two decades the Australian Medical Association became part of that xenophobic dark heart which periodically rises to the surface of our Australian politic. In 1957 this was obvious to the Minister of Health, Bill Sheahan, when he asked the New South Wales Legislative Assembly:

'What is the use of having a brotherhood of man as an ideal if we are not prepared to consider foreign doctors as human beings?'”

It seems little changes as the reader discovers as more modern times are reviewed and the just appalling self seeking behaviour of the AMA is catalogued.

Of course now – it is all sweetness and light – given that most of the regions and much of the city now relies on the OTD medical workforce

I can confidently predict once all the medical students now being trained become graduates the medico-political powers that be will yet again turn on the OTDs. History provides a racing certainty on that bet.

I wish it were not so – but the way Dr Haneef was treated suggests otherwise.

It is hard not to be deeply ashamed about all this, even though not directly, or even indirectly, involved.

David.