Pathological people pleasers ? Sometimes , doctors
MO must put their needs above everyone else ’ s
Thanks , Dr Ashlea Broomfield .
I love the article ( see page 16 ), especially your ‘ experiment ’ as to whether the same boundary conversations worked for you as for your nurse colleagues .
What great learning when we apply wisdom to ourselves .
I hope more of us can manage the HALT-B syndrome well — notice when I am Hungry , notice when I am feeling Angry , Late or Tired — or need the Bathroom — and offer themselves some compassion .
Dr Carolyn Russell GP , Brisbane , Qld
This article is so important .
I have just had thoracic spine surgery and had to take some time off to recover .
What a luxury to be forced to reset everything and get the basic building blocks right : sleeping , eating properly , exercise , focusing on my spiritual life and time with my family — and yes , doing some CPD as well .
Not that I would recommend it , but the surgery has been a bit of a blessing in disguise .
Dr Michael Kwan GP , Sydney , NSW
Working as an intern in ED at Broken Hill Hospital in 1977 , I went to the waiting room one lunchtime and announced that I was going to lunch .
“ Call me if there is anything urgent ,” I said .
Many of the patients then asked reception if they could keep their spots if they went to lunch too .
Dr Peter Jacobs GP , Sunshine Coast , Qld
Hiding behind numbers is indefensible MDO defends restricting cover for doctors
Dr
treating kids with gender dysphoria
This has really saddened me even though I only administer genderaffirming hormone treatments to minors after they have been seen by the local tertiary clinic .
MDA National is claiming it is a purely statistical decision based on too many unknown factors — that the numbers are becoming too big to predict risk with certainty .
This just does not make sense . Someone somewhere within MDA
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National is making a moral judgement disguised as ‘ just numbers ’.
I would have jumped ship if I was not already with Avant .
Dr Catherine Rolfe GP , Perth , WA
The restriction on indemnity cover only applies to private doctors who “ practise outside of a hospital-based multidisciplinary team ”. That is a good move . These sorts of complex cases should not be managed outside of the hospital system .
Dr Sue Ieraci Emergency medicine specialist ,
Sydney , NSW
While complex cases are managed by the hospital-based multidisciplinary teams , this restriction will impede access for less complex cases .
It is a terrible move .
Dr Samuel Ognenis GP , Perth , WA
In real life , access to these hospital services does not exist for many .
In real life , psychiatrists ( me ), psychologists and GPs manage just fine .
In real life , for most young people , there is no such thing as gender clinics in hospitals .
The public system is becoming more and more exclusionary , and the expertise you think is there is not .
Dr Emma Adams Psychiatrist , Canberra , ACT
Payment flies in the face of good sense Govt reveals $ 2000
Dr
‘ indicative ’ payment for patient enrolment scheme
I am so frustrated with this
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proposed plan to pay $ 2000 to manage frequent-flyer patients .
I am a metro GP with a younger patient population .
Most of my patients that fit into this frequent-flyer category are those with a history of mental illness , trauma and self-harm .
I feel like the burden of these presentations is being put back on us to manage despite being a group of GPs who are arguably already burnt out and feeling under-supported in their care of these complex patients .
To top this off , a lot of my previous frequent-flyer patients were doing really well and were stable with 2-3 weekly psychology sessions and monthly / bimonthly reviews with me under the 20 sessions funded by Medicare throughout the pandemic .
That has been cut to 10 . And now many of my patients , who were previously well-managed , are turning up having churned through the 10 sessions for the year .
They are dropping in a heap , and it is only May .
Why couldn ’ t they have instead increased the number of psychotherapy sessions or funded GPs specifically to manage these patients collaboratively ?
Dr Anneliese Willems GP , Melbourne , Vic
Good point , Anneliese .
And as an older GP with many complex patients , there is no reward for my years of keeping them away from hospitals .
There are no winners with this program .
It is crazy to base it on hospital attendances rather than other health outcomes , such as hospital avoidance , which can be calculated these days using integrated data sets .
Professor Simon Willcock GP , Sydney , NSW
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Time to reflect on a deadly disparity Review finds AHPRA
Dr lacks ‘ clear process ’ for helping doctors under investigation at risk of self-harm
CPD reflection question . A GP who has had 16 patients under their care suicide in four years , with no clinical notes and who made no attempt to assess their mental health would be ( a ) regarded as ‘ deeply confronting ’ by AHPRA or ( b ) immediately suspended to protect the public from harm ?
Dr Ian Hargreaves Surgeon , Sydney , NSW
Suicides are ‘ sentinel ’ events .
It has been known for a long time that doctors can and have been responding catastrophically to notifications . These often arise in the setting of an overworked and unwell doctor who is carrying a huge professional and personal burden alone .
Doctors can disguise this very well .
The complaint process simply adds an intolerable new burden that is too much to bear .
And the lack of information about the process , progress , duration and outcome only intensifies the distress .
Doctors going through this need a minimum of three advisers : their MDO lawyer , an experienced peer colleague who can put it into perspective and their own GP to conduct a comprehensive independent assessment of their physical and mental health to assess and the consequences of a notification .
This is common sense and must be embedded in the way doctors are supported from the outset .
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We must not be expected to face this alone .
Dr Roger Sexton GP , Adelaide , SA
Could AI lend a helping handover ? Doctors banned from
6 using ChatGPT to write medical notes
We have a major issue with the variable quality and timeliness of information exchange between hospitals and between hospitals and the health professionals working outside them .
Usually called discharge summaries , they are in fact clinical handovers .
They must improve and not be a fragment of care done by a harried and overstretched junior when they eventually have time from all the other demands put on them .
If AI can help , can we have some decent research on the topic ?
Things have to improve .
Associate Professor Chris Hogan GP , Melbourne , Vic
Going to bat for equal protection ‘ GPs need protection
6 too ’: New calls for laws on violent patients to extend to all doctors and their staff
As a GP assaulted by a racist patient and now permanently incapacitated , the laws that apply when hospital staff are attacked should apply to all .
In SA , they have introduced tougher penalties to protect retail workers and frontline workers . That covers pharmacists but not GPs in private practice .
Any assault or act of violence should be treated to the full extent of the law regardless of what line of work the victim is in .
The inconsistencies are mind boggling .
Dr Alvin Chua GP , Adelaide , SA
Ahhh , Alvin , we all know that us GPs are not front line .
It is a sick world out there , and tougher laws will not stop that .
I knew a GP who kept a half-size baseball bat under his desk .
I do not think that is a good idea : crack someone ’ s head and go to gaol ; miss the first time and get cracked yourself .
Perhaps hire security .
Dr Peter Imgraben GP , Adelaide , SA
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