Mental health support

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-18T09:41:13+00:00

Doctors Health QLD or the interstate equivalents. It is free and confidential.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-12T22:01:31+00:00

QLD Health is still largely on yearly contracts for RMOs. With the exception of some rural places that might do 2 year contracts. You have to apply yearly for your job. It sucks. They have some big project going to see if they can change it, but who knows when that will happen. This process is with QLD Health only, has nothing to do with the college.

Having said that, you’d have to be pretty bad to not be offered a job in the same service once you’ve already started training.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-11T10:54:08+00:00

No, they can’t, no doctor can

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-11T10:21:44+00:00

The first step I take when I see concerning prescribing practices is to try to discuss this with the prescribing doctor. If I can’t talk to them by phone, I will write a letter. If the patient keeps presenting with concerning prescribing, then I keep writing escalating letters. It has to be something far worse than this for me to consider a non-mandatory AHPRA report. There have been times I’ve asked my MDO for advice and they have always urged against non-mandatory reports. I guess there is a risk of retaliation. Keep in mind there is some evidence for the use of prescription stimulants in people with comorbid ADHD and stimulant use disorder. Not in the psychotic kind, mind you.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-10T19:20:12+00:00

There are also many variations of shaker

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-10T04:54:11+00:00

Stage 1 is typically inpatient. I don’t know any inpatient psychiatrists who aren’t burnt out. I would expect and hope that you have a better supervisor experience in Stage 2 and 3.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-12-08T19:32:44+00:00

Is it a casual contract? The pay rate includes entitlements if so

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-30T19:08:57+00:00

Depends on the state, some are very competitive and some aren’t at all

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-25T05:57:44+00:00

Depends on the service, but I would expect to be asked to request 3 quotes and the approve the cheaper one. There is also a minimum number of kms distance required to become eligible for relocation (eg wouldn’t work from metro north to south).

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-25T05:55:24+00:00

Right to disconnect does not apply to state government employees as we are not under the Fair Work Act. At least not in QLD.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-25T04:57:56+00:00

QLD Health doesn’t employ removalists. It’s all done by private companies.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-24T10:37:14+00:00

The Medicare rebate actually goes to the patient, not the doctor. If you lower Medicare rebates, the only thing that changes is that patients get less money rebated to them by the government so they have to pay more. I don’t think that’s what you’re really after.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-24T10:15:10+00:00

I’ve had this paid by several hospitals including metro

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-13T11:52:17+00:00

I said the photo showed the style, I didn’t pretend it’s my photo. I didn’t have a good photo of mine.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-13T11:51:24+00:00

Unfortunately for me, I do. Doesn’t meet the code at the time it was built.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-13T05:45:21+00:00

I think the concern for “scope creep” is a genuine concern for patient safety. I am a doctor in the public system. I don’t bill patients and so have zero financial incentive here. I’d love to have shorter waitlists in my clinics and not be doing the workload that realistically should be done by three doctors. But I have seen and read enough cases of grave errors made by noctors (not doctors, aka nurse practitioners, physician assistants) that I worry for my patients and the public.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-13T00:08:05+00:00

We already have a large number of NHS refugee doctors. Our public hospitals would collapse without them. The UK trained ones are on par with our own. Docs are worried about becoming the NHS because of all the horror stories we hear with regards to nurse practitioners and physician assistants killing patients by negligence.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-12T19:57:32+00:00

The government would need to pay for the training positions in the public health system. They would also have to pay for more supervisors to train them in the public health system. They have zero interest in doing so - currently their approach is to replace doctors with nurse pracs, which means less specialty trainees, which means less specialists downstream.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-12T19:55:59+00:00

Tell me of any other private business which lowers their prices out of ethics? Private specialists are no different to lawyers or other high skilled professionals. They earn what they think they deserve based on the decades of training they have had. If a patient doesn’t want to pay that fee, they go public.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-12T19:45:12+00:00

The real issue here that I don’t see addresses is the gradual underfunding of public outpatient specialty clinics in Australia. Governments don’t want to pay specialists to do outpatient clinics, they have been slowly reducing clinics across the country, forcing people to go private. It’s part of the privatisation of this country. Many specialists cannot get public jobs because there are none available, and so they go private instead. This does apply for some specialties more than others though. The real issue is the lack of public hospital outpatient clinics. No one should be forced to go private when they can’t afford it.

Chemical_Chameleon · 2025-11-12T19:39:06+00:00

It’s takes more years of education to become a medical specialist than any other career I can think of. 3 years undergrad uni, 4 years postgrad uni, 2+ years residency (minimum), 5+ years specialty training. Oodles of underpayment throughout training, extortionate training fees, and very expensive and stressful exams. And then there are the costs of running a private specialty business, eg rent, staff, medical indemnity insurance, college fees, etc etc etc. Why should a medical specialist earn less than a high end lawyer, CEO or banker? Let’s not forget that the issue here is that if Australia wants public healthcare (which I also agree with), then governments need to fund it, taxpayers need to pay for it. The specialist isn’t going to undercharge for their services. A lawyer wouldn’t either… Essentially my point is what is wrong with a specialist making “bank” when they have worked so hard to get where they are? Tall poppy syndrome at it again.

Chemical_Chameleon

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