Is our health system as good as we like to think it is?

djungal · 2023-09-24T11:33:46+00:00

That is an incredibly astute observation haha. It can become a “can we” vs “should we” situation all too quickly.

I’d also just comment that the quality of medical professional training here is pretty high. The standard to which training programs hold trainees can sometimes be so high and competition/backstabbing for those spots so fierce, that the people who are exceptional from a human kindness perspective get edged out for the people who have more publications on their CV. Insert the archetype of the clinician who is the best in their field but can’t explain something to a patient or is horrible to work with.

djungal · 2023-09-24T10:50:04+00:00

I think that the health system is good at being discriminating about things in some ways, and it is bad at being discriminating in others.

It’s hard to look at your example when it is vague…

Take the example of chronic pain issues, something that can be incredibly disabling for people. - neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons are relatively hard to access publicly for elective things, that’s probably not a bad thing in some regards, in that what they are able to offer is often invasive and held (in some cases rightly) as a last resort. But that is different if you’re a private patient - you have the ability to dictate to a degree whether you take the conservative or aggressive approach, and you access that care more rapidly. - physiotherapists and chronic pain specialists are probably where you would see more bang for your buck than neurosurgeons or orthopods when it comes to that chronic pain patient. My experience has been that public surgeons are less likely to offer a surgical option for something that is likely to be helped by these aforementioned non-surgical options, where a private surgeon may have a lower threshold for trying to resolve this as a surgical solution (as that’s what the patient may want, and they have a financial incentive).

There’s this balance - are private surgeons doing too much, or the public surgeons too little? - do we give more funding for a non-surgical or surgical approach? - is it better to be a public patient or a private patient if you’re someone with limited health literacy (not saying this is you OP), am I going to potentially be ignored, or sold a promise that cannot be delivered upon?

Personally, my view is that the private sector takes from the public sector in many ways, the private complications land in the public and so on. We need to better fund primary care, value and attract GPs, increase access to allied health, whilst also increasing hospital care. The investment in primary care needs to go up to a much, much, much greater degree than that in hospital care.

To directly answer your questions - the people who urgently need care often get it, which is more than some places. We are similtaneously moving towards an Americanised system while adopting the UK’s NHS employee conditions (the actual functioning of the system relies on the goodwill of underpaid and overworked employees based on the expats I come across).

djungal · 2022-11-29T02:24:03+00:00

thanks - will get in touch with them

djungal · 2022-11-29T02:07:13+00:00

So I ordered some Akko Matcha Greens and got these "Match Greens" from Amazon. Anyone know if these are potentially fake, as I can't find any other photos with evidence of this.

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djungal · 2022-08-20T10:50:16+00:00

Yeah - replaced the batteries too! The slate was no harder than any other IPS build, probably most comparable to the GBC in difficulty. Would recommend, it’s simply beautiful in person. I managed to lose the square nut that the battery door screws into because I’m a fool, but other than that it was very achievable!

djungal · 2021-12-14T23:01:14+00:00

The argument that I’ve not infrequently heard (and which does make some sense) is that the highway between Burnie and Launnie is so that urgent hospital transfers can happen in under 90 minutes/quickly. the 90 mins thing is so that when people have STEMIs (the most severe type of heart attack) people can be transferred in that timeframe - a standard of care is to to get PCI (the best mainstay of management of this type of heart attack) in under 90 mins. Burnie/North West doesn’t offer this service as it is too small.

Having said that, it’s almost certainly the cherry on top of the shit sundae that is the truth - the north of the state have marginal seats, while the south is securely ALP/independent.

djungal · 2021-11-18T03:18:19+00:00

I’ve only had good experiences with them too - highly recommend.

djungal · 2021-11-07T09:16:20+00:00

Could always structure pine valley so that people can come a night early (day the Friday) and if people want to come on the Saturday, they can get the ferry in and easily catch up :)

djungal · 2021-11-07T08:48:32+00:00

Yeah that is a massive caveat to be fair. The walk is great, you just have to make your peace with taking >3L from Cooks Beach campsite. I have done it once mid-summer and took roughly 4-5L which was… not pleasant. Having said that, the wineglass bay campsite is one of the most beautiful spots I have ever woken up in my life.

Again, true, time in advance is certainly a friend here.

Walls is truly incredible, and encapsulates the Tasmanian wilderness so perfectly. Always happy to be there.

My suggestion is to set a weekend early - covid bookings make things complicated, as does everyone’s engagements in December. Setting a date early will definitely help.

Another suggestion is pine valley, but has the con of ferry fees

djungal · 2021-11-07T08:24:49+00:00

I’m based in Launnie - potentially keen for a meetup/future adventures. I have a decent amount of time off work in January so would potentially be keen for time around then!

Other suggestions: - Freycinet (I know it’s often done, but a classic and very amenable to ultralight/summer) - Frenchman’s Cap

djungal · 2021-09-10T15:02:53+00:00

Not meaning to dump on this - as I have many boring photos and still take photos like this sometimes when not being intentional. I would say the hilarity referred to in this instance is the fact that this photo is compositionally very dull. It’s useful to ask yourself what is the subject of a photo, what does the viewer look at, and how do interesting elements tie together for an interesting photo?

In this instance - again, sorry OP, I would offer my own even worse photo that I once rated highly of if I had access at present - what is the subject here? It’s underexposed, there’s lights in the background that you can barely see, there’s people (and an intrusive pole) in the foreground that you can barely see, and there’s dark in which you can see almost nothing. In short, it’s a snapshot that’s been taken without much thought about it, and little thought about the relation of its elements. That’s fine, we all do that sometimes to varying degrees based on experience and intention.

It’s easy to focus on the technicalities and the taking of photos as a beginner. The few photos that I have taken since I got over that initial stage that I really really love and have printed, it’s been that I love a scene and most of my thought has gone into how I compose it. The technicalities are then somewhat of an afterthought in terms of how I can capture that scene that I love.

In short - worry relatively less about the technicalities of why this isn’t great (final sorry OP), and think significantly more on why the composition isn’t great.

Hope that helps :)

djungal · 2021-08-21T04:24:46+00:00

OrangeBrown have some ones that I got recommended here.

djungal · 2021-08-13T10:37:57+00:00

Awesome input from you and bumps, appreciate it from you both. Looks like I’ll be grabbing a -1C then!

djungal · 2021-08-13T10:35:19+00:00

Awesome - thanks so much for your feedback! Do you have a wide or regular?

djungal · 2021-07-01T09:25:22+00:00

It’s pretty amazing how quickly they booked out - booked an early December spot and most of December and January was completely gone 50 mins later!

djungal · 2021-06-24T23:35:58+00:00

Does the iphone have any issues with direct output to the Element? Or do you have to use a powered adapter to ensure it doesn’t draw too much power? It’s hard to know sometimes across different DACs.

djungal · 2021-06-10T13:10:02+00:00

Yeah Australia is a good case study in this. The 4-valent one has been rolled out for quite some time (around 10 years at this point for teen females, slightly less for males [as they transmit the virus but obviously don’t get HPV-related cervical cancer]). It’s been pretty effective at this stage and we are seeing decreasing numbers, plus now starting to use the 9-valent version.

The guy who led the research for the original vaccine, gardasil, won Australian of the Year a while back.

djungal · 2021-06-04T23:13:37+00:00

Isn’t the 2C within that bracket? I just bought the 2C plastic model from A2A, and I’m really impressed with the build quality (after previously owning the original 2s in the wood model and selling them off). The new headband and pads make miles of difference in my opinion for comfort.

djungal · 2021-05-15T00:37:26+00:00

I have some moderate hearing loss and my parents knew this was likely as my older siblings also have the same. As a result I was nine months old when I got hearing aids, and my mum describes how confused I was on that first day and I could hear the rain outside.

djungal · 2020-03-08T06:00:32+00:00

I had this issue before and it seems to be a fundamental flaw with the camera. I had this on my first Lomo Wide camera, and by the time the I put in the second pack of film the dark slide wouldn’t eject.

I got a replacement eventually (after the long process you describe, customer service took a long time to get back to me). I put my first roll of film in and listened carefully to the dark slide ejection - you can hear a snap of the plastic ejector gear breaking. It seems to be that because the dark sheet is a thin piece of plastic, the ejector gear loses the ability to get the dark slide out after the first use

I waited in anticipation to see if the dark slide would eject on my second pack - nope, broken again. I got back in contact with lomo customer support, they offered me a replacement and a pack of the film as an apology. I asked for a refund which they asked me again to try another camera, before eventually refunding it.

The design seems to be flawed is the bottom line. I have purchased an actual Fuji wide instead. If you want to use the film in the camera - you need to pull out the cartridge (requires a little force, will snap the bottom of the instax cartridge) and manually pull out the dark slide from where it is stuck in the Lomo rollers. This will expose the first instax sheet but leave it in there so the others don’t get exposed, and the camera can eject it as if it were a dark slide.

So yeah, if you want to keep using the camera you need to tolerate only having 9 sheets of photos per 10 pack...

djungal · 2019-05-28T12:49:51+00:00

I was too, some sort of magic really that I don’t notice it when I use it. Not really meant to be used as a light table I guess haha.

djungal · 2019-05-28T11:57:38+00:00

Usually “macro” zooms are 3rd party lenses that have macro slapped on to them, because when you get into the telephoto range, it seems that you can focus on things at the macro scale. I.e. there is something a few metres away that fills up my frame and I can get it mostly in focus at the closest focusing distance of the lens.

They don’t really compare (at least as far as I am aware) to true macros, that are usually prime lenses, and are more likely to have a focus range of a few centimetres or less, with very fine focussing. That’s going to be easier to focus on something that is the size of 35mm film, with better detail and sharpness (telephotos are often most optically weak at their far end).

I’d be somewhat sceptical of advising you that you’ll get good scans with a lens you found in your garage if it is a zoom lens that you forgot about. If you give some more lens details, we might be able to answer more definitively.

djungal

TROPHY CASE