A monumentally shortsighted and stupid decision

On 21 June 2009 I wrote I was thinking of stopping work when I turn 65 [1]. Then my 65th birthday was three years off. Now it’s under half that. For as long as I can recall – at least from 1969 when I graduated – retired doctors in Victoria could obtain restricted registration by the Medical Board of Victoria, and restricted medical indemnity cover. This allowed them to write prescriptions and also referrals to specialists. In short, to provide limited medical services. But this arrangement, which allowed retired doctors to be useful and to retain a link with their profession, was anathema to the Medical Board of Australia which last 1 July took over from State Medical Boards, registration of doctors and regulation medical practice [2]. Its reason’s that doctors providing occasional medical services can’t do it safely. Or at least not as safely as doctors who provide the same services more frequently. Yet the Board can’t provide a shred of evidence to justify its decision. The decision’s the antithesis of inclusive and the embodiment of dismissive, and it’ll load more work onto already overworked non-retired doctors. Not unexpectedly, this decision has irked, and continues to irk, doctors who’ve retired since l July, and those who’ll retired soon [3]. It’s a monumentally shortsighted and stupid decision. I doubt it’ll be reversed. But you never know. If it’s not, I hope those myopic bureaucrats who’re responsible for it, come to regret it. Will they? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.