MJA policy on sponsored supplements

Health is a top priority for governments, and politicians increasingly dictate how health care is delivered in hospitals and the community. In this process, politicians assume the mantle of “de-facto doctors”. Their past treatments have included: an intentional reduction of hospital beds, fuelling the current chaos in our emergency departments; the capping of medical school places, causing our present chronic dependence on overseastrained doctors, with unfortunate outcomes such as the Bundaberg Hospital scandal; the de-skilling of general practice, exacerbated by the downgrading or closure of rural hospitals; and the failure to follow up the Relative Value Study, with its resulting negative impact on the morale of doctors and a loss of trust in de-facto doctors. More recent treatments include a precipitous increase in medical school places, which is a disaster in the making if the required expansion of training infrastructure fails to materialise.