These new contracts take away basic employment rights and allow managers to control my medical decisions based on profitability- A doctor post. #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors
Tomorrow is my first day as a specialist anaesthetist.
It has taken 9 years of University and 10 years of working, training and more exams than I’d like to remember to get here.
I wouldn’t be here without all the senior doctors who have taught me and guided me along the way. They have given so much of their own time and energy to teach and encourage me. From them, I have learnt the most important lessons of compassion, dignity and respect.
From my hospital colleagues: nurses, midwives, anaesthetic technicians, wardies and ward clerks, I have witnessed the power of passionate people working together as a team to achieve the impossible, even at 4 in the morning.
I owe possibly the greatest debt to my patients and their families, who have shown me patience and generosity at some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
Sadly, tomorrow will be bittersweet. I had hoped to be embarking on a lifelong career in public hospitals.
The Queensland Health Minister has told doctors to sign new “contracts” or leave. These new contracts take away basic employment rights and allow managers to control my medical decisions based on profitability.
I cannot sign a contract that puts profits and targets ahead of patient care. That would be betraying all the people who have helped me become the doctor I am today.
I hope that I don’t have to walk away.
Source: Facebook