I believe that doctors are their own worst enemies. These are the people who were called leeches in the old days and in my opinion nothing much has changed. Whenever the government suggests a way to make health care available to more patients, the AMA protests. Under the management of Rosanna Capolingua whom I have criticised many times before, the AMA wants to restrict primary health care to GP’s.

Nurse Practitioners who are perfectly able to administer injections, take Blood Pressure readings and change dressings and who indeed do that in hospitals, would be dangerous to patients, according to Capolingua. So where does the danger lie? Easy answer. If nurse practitioners and other ancillary medicos performed these duties, then GP’s would be hit in the pocket nerve. That is the only real danger. Most of the duties of a GP are to perform activities that a nurse or physio etc could perform. Very rarely do they have to do much more in their surgeries. Let’s face it, they are always complaining that they don’t have the time to do more.

Nobody has suggested that GP’s should be replaced. What we all want is for the pressure to be taken off GP’s so that we can get access to medical care cheaper and faster. Should there be a problem, then the GP can still be consulted.

Why shouldn’t an optometrist who discovers a problem in a patient’s eyes not be able to refer that patient to a specialist? After all, that’s all a GP would do and why not save on double dipping?

Doctors are one of the most money-grubbing trade unions around. I have been to many social events where the doctors congregate and bemoan the high cost of medical insurance. Do they discuss the latest treatments? Do they even talk about health in general? No way. It’s all about money and control by the government.

There was a time when doctors were respected but those days are truly gone. Doctors are in business and they want to make sure that the government gives in to their demands. So that’s why they elect militant heads like Capolingua.

My view is that if doctors want to behave like any other trade union then they should be treated as such. The government should do the best that it can to provide good health care to all its citizens. And in the absence of sufficient doctors then other health professionals should be employed to make up for the deficiency.

I believe that the doctors’ agenda is to prevent more doctors being trained or imported. There’s a lot to be said for the English system.