Medicare Local minefield
THE funding of the police department appears to be shifting from a state responsibility to that of GPs.
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Dr Pam Rachootin
News Articles
Learning without a script
FOR a number of years I enjoyed teaching clinical skills for beginning medical students.
A private spectator sport
MANDY needed a transvaginal ultrasound. I told her what to expect, including the bit about a chaperone.
Is pottery a dying art?
South Australian GP Dr Pamela Rachootin attends a conference with a difference.
General practice: a one-stop shop for all ills
Being a GP sometimes means more than just fixing people’s health.
Blogs
The quandary of ho-ho-hospital transport
My favourite Christmas song – or rather the one whose endless shopping centre repetition I resent the least – is the 1952 American classic ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’. I’m sure you know it: “Oh, what a laugh it would have been, if Daddy had only seen, Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.” This song reminds me of the childhood journey into adulthood: waiting for Santa, and then, eventually, becoming Santa. In my professional life, maturing from medical student to novice GP to the current peppery, grey-haired variety, I used to wait for my own Santa in the form of the ambulance ...
The joy of house guests, both great and small
My 85-year-old mother, who lives in Arizona, rang to let me know she was coming for a visit. I was on her bucket list. “I just hope there’s not a hole in the bucket,” she added. Not feeling confident enough to travel on her own, she enlisted the help of her landlord and his girlfriend. The two motorcycle enthusiasts, 25 years her junior, had lovingly nursed her through a previous health crisis and were agreeable escorts. Mum was never one to hang around with deadbeats. For a while it looked dicey as to whether the three of them were coming at all. ...
A cheeky kiss for an icon but well deserved
One of my favourite aphorisms is Kierkegaard’s: “Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.” The wisdom of this quote resonated with me again after a friend in Los Angeles emailed me the obituary of Dr Lester Breslow, the former Dean of the UCLA School of Public Health (and before that the head of California’s Department of Public Health). The sad news instantly rekindled in me the embarrassing memory of my one and only meeting with Dr Breslow, when I was a master’s student in epidemiology in the mid-1970s. I had been invited to attend a function with ...
Deceiving patients and defecation
IMAGINE this scene. I am interrupted by a call while consulting. A patient has just received an invitation to participate in the national bowel screening program. She is apprehensive and asks for my advice. “I completely sympathise with your suspicions. There are so many scams around these days. But this is truly a worthwhile opportunity. With all the crap that government has been dishing out lately, this is your chance to finally give some back. “I know it’s just a small sample, but think of it as honest ‘feedback’.” If that’s not exactly what I said, that is what I was thinking. How ...
Life is a banquet of good bites
ONE has to make allowances, I told myself. But then again, there comes a time of reckoning. And this was it. Tony and I were about to discuss his less-than-perfect cholesterol results. I took out my one-page summary of dietary recommendations. “Do you have skim milk?” “We have it in the house.” That was an evasive answer if ever I’d heard one. “Do you drink it?” I asked point blank. He hesitated. I decided to change tactics and ask about his intake of forbidden foods. “Do you use butter?” “Yes.” “And cheese?” “Naturally.” “Coconut milk?” “All the time in my curries.” “And what about pies?” During the silence that followed I realised how stupid ...