After returning from my busy GP locum in Tasmania — where I was received with open arms and much appreciation as an essential worker —  I know what it feels like to be a leper.

Akin to having criminal status, completely untrustworthy, posing a great risk to the life of the community and completely unappreciated.

That’s the experience I had returning to my home state of WA.

A practicing doctor does not receive essential worker status here — despite zero coronavirus community transmission in Tasmania, Perth or at Sydney airport where I transited for three hours.