On Blogging Australia

I received this joke via email the other day:

Two patients limp into two different medical clinics with the same complaint. Both have trouble walking and
appear to require a hip replacement.

The FIRST patient is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery
the following week.

The SECOND sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a
specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn’t reviewed for another week and finally has his surgery scheduled
for a month from then. Why the different treatment for the two patients?

The FIRST is a Golden Retriever.
The SECOND is a Senior Citizen.

Next time take me to a vet.

I laughed, then thought about it. While here in Australia we might say “old-age pensioner” or “a person in receipt of the Age Pension”, there is basically nothing different. Except here the waiting list for a hip replacement would be much longer than a month - it was

• 2.9 months in New South Wales in 1996,
• 96 days across Australia on average in 2001-2002, and
• by June 2006 the average wait was 343 days for Tasmanians. Granted that in the same report, Queensland had reduced waiting times to a national low of 49 days.

Hip replacements aside, on the day that I read that joke, my partner Helen tried to find a known GP that would see her anytime that day - to no avail. She could have gone to a MacClinic bulk-billing franchise and waited on the off chance that her number came up, or gone to casualty and be told that she was wasting their time and should see a GP. But she didn’t have all day, because our cat needed to be taken to the vet… can you guess how many vets could have made time to see the cat that day? He was in and treated within a couple of hours of her making the appointment. For myself, when I was suffering from a cold through the week, I didn’t bother even trying to see a doctor, based on the premise that I couldn’t see myself getting to one in time for it to make any difference.

On the available evidence, as a society we care more for animals than people when it comes to health care access. While I am a big fan of animals being treated fairly, I believe that it is important for creatures of all species to get the medical attention that they need when they need it - including us humans.

Note: This article was originally posted on Facibus Reviews. It is interesting to reflect on it three-and-a-bit months later when we’re facing a Federal election soon - I wonder if things are going to get better any time soon, regardless of who wins?