The Herald on 30 October led with a story about the Health Minister welcoming fast-track registration for overseas-trained medical graduates to fill critical gaps in our health workforce. Determined, as always, to cry stinky fish about anything the coalition government does, a reporter tracked down critical comments from the salaried medical specialists’ union who denounced the move. The reporter lacked the experience to realise why the doctors oppose the minister on issues like this. What the union wants is more government money spent on its members and their pet projects. It believes that important efforts to save money in the Health sector will almost certainly delay salary increases for them. Scarcity has always worked in favour of higher salaries, so the union wants a gate to stop British, Irish and Australian doctors from filling the gaps in our hospitals too rapidly.
