Terminal Decline: a surgeon's diagnosis of the Australian healthcare system
12 October 2010
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Professor Mohamed Khadra discovers a healthcare system in crisis in his new book Terminal Decline. |
University of Sydney Professor of Surgery, Mohamed Khadra has taken a scalpel and dissected the Australian healthcare system in his recently-released book, Terminal Decline. His findings point to a healthcare system in crisis.
The book takes a look into the history of healthcare in Australia, especially the decisions made in the 1970s and 1980s which have resulted in the current national system.
Professor Khadra presents the case for returning to simpler healthcare principles which were in use prior to the centralised bureaucracy of modern healthcare governance today.
He asks a range of questions including:
- Is there such thing as a perfect health system?
- What is healthcare all about?
- How do we afford it?
- Can we, and should we, administer universally free treatment to the population?
Terminal Decline is peppered with compelling case histories and makes comparisons to other healthcare systems around the world.
Professor Khadra has written a controversial and topical book which leads to the inevitable question: is the national healthcare system in terminal decline?
"As a practising surgeon now, I see great differences between the system as it is currently, and the system in which I trained in the 1980s," he said.
"The overwhelming difference is the lack of empowerment I see in the faces of all
those around me who are working in the clinical interface."
Professor Mohamed Khadra is a Professor of Surgery at Sydney Medical School and the bestselling author of Making The Cut and The Patient. He is also founder of the Rural Clinical School at the University of New South Wales.
Praise for Making The Cut:
"Totally absorbing and brilliantly written... Khadra offers a unique and often moving insight into the world of the surgeon." - The Age
"Unputdownable... I read the book straight through one night... A tough-minded book, but also full of love... Compelling and memorable." - Australian Literary Review
Media enquiries: Rachel Gleeson, 0403 067 342, 9351 4312, rachel.gleeson@sydney.edu.au