Kevin Rudd regains Labor leadership 57-45

Today has certainly been a very eventful day in Australian politics. It began with the declaration of two key independents, Oakeshott and Windsor, that they would not seek reelection.

This was followed up with a vote on the Labor leadership at 7 pm tonight. This time, there was a major swing towards Kevin Rudd, with many in the caucus seeing the writing on the wall. Bill Shorten's support, while not sufficient alone, helped Kevin Rudd over the line.

Now the election looks a lot tighter. This will be interesting. Now I hope that Labor under Kevin Rudd will scrap the plans for the $2000 self education cap and the Medicare cuts. It will be interesting to see what his policies will be and who will form the new cabinet.

Scrap the $2000 Cap on Medical Self-Education

As I mentioned before on this blog, the federal government wants to impose a $2000 cap on self-education. This will be a strong disincentive for doctors hoping to keep up to date with the latest developments in their area of practice.

The Scrap the Cap campaign has been launched as an online petition to raise public and political awareness of the adverse effects that this cap will have. There is a substantial list of supporters:

Founding supporters of the #ScrapTheCap campaign are:

• Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM)
• Australian General Practice Network (AGPN)
• Australian Medical Association (AMA)
• Australian Medicare Local Alliance (AMLA)
• General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA)
• Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)
• Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA)

All #ScrapTheCap supporting organisations:

• Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM)
• Australian Doctor
• Australian General Practice Network (AGPN)
• Australian Medical Association (AMA)
• Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA)
• Australian Medicare Local Alliance (AMLA)
• General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA)
• General Practice Students Network (GPSN)
• National General Practice Supervisors’ Association (NGPSA)
• Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)
• Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA)

 If you wish to support the training of doctors in Australia in keeping up to date, please sign the petition here: http://www.scrapthecap.com.au/sign-the-petition/

Labor needs a "fair shake of the sauce bottle" if it is to win the election

At this late stage, Labor are still performing very badly in the polls. To add insult to injury, it seems like Gillard's comment about "men in blue ties" has put male voters offside, resulting in 1/4 of Labor's male vote disappearing, without a significant increase in female voters. Not surprising either. It is hard to imagine how she would not forsee the consequences of saying that, but for some reason she said it.

It seems like a lot of the public think that the current government under Gillard has gone a "bridge too far" on many issues. They've even managed to get doctors offside by cuts to Medicare and a $2000 per year limit on Continuing Professional Development! It is almost certain that if nothing changes, Tony Abbott will be the next prime minister. There is talk of Kevin Rudd getting more support within the Labor caucus, but after last year's endorsement of Gillard by the caucus 71:31, it seems like Rudd does not want to challenge again without the public support of most ministers, while Gillard does not want to give up her position.

It will be interesting to see how things play out. If Labor is to win, they need a "fair shake of the sauce bottle".

[update] End of medicine rotation

Yesterday was my last day of the medicine rotation. In second year MD, after the initial foundation term, we rotate between the terms of medicine, surgery, and ED/ambulatory/GP, with 1/3 of the cohort in each rotation at any time.

There were fewer lectures in this term, but at my clinical school there certainly was no lack of lectures. Compared to foundation term though, there was plenty more ward time and other patient contact time in outpatients and bedside tutorials. I do wish that we had more opportunity to follow ward rounds, but then again the lectures teach us things we should know, so there has to be a compromise between them. I think the balance has been quite reasonable so far.

I learned a lot in this term, and ECGs are becoming less and less mysterious. I'm also becoming more accustomed to hearing the murmur of aortic stenosis in different patients who have it. However, I still need to improve my history taking skills.

Next week is intersession week when we will have some more lectures and another progress test. Then there will be a break before the student conference. In MD2 at Melbourne, there is no big exam midyear. The subjects are year long, so the big exams (OSCE and written) are at the end of the year.


To all those in undergrad, good luck for your exams.

Unimelb undergrad semester 1 swotvac 2013

The past Friday was the last day of semester 1 for 2013 for UniMelb undergraduate students. Now it is the swotvac, and exams start in one week.

Good luck for your exams!