This year has driven home to me how difficult life can be for our migrant patients
As some of you are aware, I recently moved to the UK for a year. Many of my challenges in relocating, albeit temporarily, have led…
Tag: Doctor stories
This doctor’s ‘one-year’ trip to Australia in 2006 ended up reshaping international guidelines
Professor Britta Regli-Baronin Ungern-Sternberg von Purkel arrived in Australia with her husband in 2006 for a one-year stay. Almost 20 years later, she is still…
As a medical student, I looked forward to ‘white coat’ prestige — but I soon discovered that’s not real medicine
I entered medicine like many young doctors do: eager, determined and drawn to its promise of excellence. The white coat, the respect, the thrill of…
‘I was surprised by how uncomfortable I felt’: Portraits of Australia’s VAD doctors
Voluntary assisted dying is now mainstream care in Australia. But its ethics still divide. Six years after it was first legalised in Victoria, here we…
Bob Marley, syphilis and the power of letters: Professor Robert Parker on a decade leading doctors in the NT
The story that has stuck with Associate Professor Robert Parker was told by his former boss Dr Alan Walker in 1989. Dr Walker said that…
How Dr Anousha Victoire became a folk singer and GP
On some days, Dr Anousha Victoire is a GP treating survivors of domestic violence. On others, she is a “weaver of dreams”. The singer and guitarist has…
My unwanted detour to the ED took me back to the 1980s
I recently had the illuminating experience of being a hospital patient. I’d been postponing surgery for a long-term umbilical hernia — until one day, complications…
By the time you read this, I hope a new and improved Dr Pam has been zapped into being
At a recent visit to an electrophysiologist, I was asked about my recurrent SVTs, which were getting to be more frequent and more difficult to…
From lipid rage to toilet rapture: A tale of two patient letters
The highs and lows of being a patient are sometimes communicated to the GP by an appreciative letter, and sometimes by one of searing complaint.…
What a dying patient’s handshake taught me about life and love
I was working in my oncology ward as usual when I received a call from the ICU to evaluate a patient. The patient was a…
