farmdoc's blog post number 516

Five weeks ago I wrote of the nationwide medical registration scheme that’ll start next 1 July. And how it’ll give bureaucrats and governments licence to put their grasping fingers where those fingers don’t belong, e.g. medical undergraduate and specialist training, and continuing education. Since then I’ve learned of another area, i.e. Good Medical Practice. Oh how politicians adore standardisation. Turning doctors into clones. Sausages. One size fits all. So the Australian Medical Council [AMC] set its sights on A Code of Conduct for Doctors in Australia. It set up a committee (as they would) which took submissions from interested (i.e. not disinterested or uninterested) parties in the name of democratic consultation. Then the committee digested everything and produced a wonderfully and admirably concise Code. You can see it here. It’s a mere 41 pages. That’s right. Only 41 pages. Yeeeha! How remarkable. And how misguided. And stupid. Only 39 pages too long. Last Tuesday I wrote of societal over-regulation. The Code’s a classic example. The AMC’s endorsed it (as it would). Me? I expect the AMC will force me to pledge my undying allegiance to the Code. Or it won’t register me. And doing so, I’ll feel like a sausage? A silly sausage. I’d rather sign up to the RSPCA’s five freedoms. Which are simple and understandable. Unlike a sausage.