Saturday 16 February 2008

The sorryness

I would like to take a leaf out of the Australian Prime minister's book, and make an apology. I apologise for neglecting this blog for the last 2 months or so.

My (lame) excuse consists of a combination of being in hospital for a while, and being on an extended holiday.

I just didn't want to think about work, while I was hiking the length and breadth of New Zealand.

But I'm back.

I'm no longer in New Zealand though. For the next year I'm working in sunny Australia. It's really cool over here, and that's not a comment on the heat! My pasty paddy skin was never designed for 30 degree temperatures and high humidity. This has to be the first time in my life that I've gone IN to a neonatal unit to cool down.

Anyway, it's a little soon to be blogging about the Oz healthcare system, as I'm only in the door. I'll be very interested in seeing how it compares tot he New Zealand, UK and Irish systems.

So far it's looking good. But, for starters, the labour ward, the neonatal unit and the adult intensive care dept are all in the one location. This is something you don't always see in Ireland and the UK. All maternity departments will have a baby unit of some sort attached. But many won't have somewhere to put mothers if they become seriously unwell during their labour. We're heading in the right direction back home, but I'm glad to see the Aussies have it sorted,

I also noticed that I get paid by the hour here!! Like I have a timesheet. Getting paid for overtime will be a new experience for me. Not sure if I'll cope.

Anyway, more posts will follow as I settle into the job. I start with 3 months of neonatology in an enormous unit, so much fun and frolics are sure to follow!

Watch this space..............

6 comments:

  1. Welcome back to the blogosphere, Dr Thunder, and also many thanks for your comment on my blog. I had deleted this blog address from my list of favourites (I tend to do that if there has been no post for a while. Now you are back you have been reinstated.

    I know, you can't cope with the excitement of it all. ;-)

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  2. Glad to see you're back! I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions of Australian hospitals. Enjoy the air-conditioning at work - it makes working over summer such a relief. :)

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  3. Yay! You are back! :)

    I'm looking forward to hearing about what you think of our system from an outside perspective!

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  4. Aah! Some good news for the patient at long last! :-D

    Really good to see you're back on the circuit and the best of luck to you with your new job in the land of Oz.

    It's 5 C degrees here! :-(

    btw I think the lowly worm must have gone underground 'cos we haven't heard from him in a while. I'm presuming he wasn't eaten alive?

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  5. Dear Dr Thunder,

    Good to see you back at the coal face blogging again. If it is not a breach of security which state are you working in? I am from NSW and have been reading a few medical blogs from the old country with a growing sense of disbelief, the NHS really can't be as bad as they all say can it??

    My wife is an RN of 30 years standing and has worked for both the public & private sectors and whilst NSW does have problems with the state hospitals, on the whole the public health system here works pretty well.

    Looking forward to your exploits in OZ.

    Cheers

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  6. Glad to see you back in circulation! :)

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