Ama

A crisis looms. Before November 2012, 181 trained medical students would find themselves without a graduate placement. Without this last step, they cannot practice as doctors in Australia.

A medical degree sees a student spend up to six years at university, where they gather a general education in medicine. Once complete, the student must find a graduate internship in a hospital, where they can then move from students to become actual doctors.

According to an audit by the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils, 3326 Australian-trained medical graduates applied for 3080 internships in 2013. That leaves 181 graduating students - who have spent between $51,000 and $300,000 - without any option to further their barely-started career.

Continue reading "A horde of untrained doctors is no good for our health" »

One Hundred years ago, the German-Italian sociologist, Robert Michels outlined his ``iron law of oligarchy’’ arguing that there inevitably develops a gap between the interests of the represented and the smaller group doing the representing.

.

Leaders, especially when elections are approaching, start to act in ways that will maximise their chances of holding on to power. Certainly, that’s the way their actions tend to be viewed.

Political opponents and powerful minorities use this ``gap’’ as fertile ground for undermining public confidence if they perceive an advantage from doing so. And this becomes a vicious cycle in turn feeding a wider cynicism

Continue reading "You don’t need an appointment for a good idea" »