Rheumatologists numbers increase revealed by AHPRA
Australia has added more than 75 rheumatologists over the last five years, with 441 medical practitioners now registered in the specialist physician category of rheumatology field of practice, according to the latest statistics on medical registration released by AHPRA.
The figures show that numbers of rheumatologists have increased from 366 registered in 2016. As well as the 1060 adult medicine rheumatologists there are also 19 specialists in paediatric rheumatology field of practice.
The rheumatologists include 11 in the ACT, 137 in NSW, three in the Northern Territory, 66 in Queensland, 40 in South Australia, 10 in Tasmania, 131 in Victoria, and 35 in WA.
Overall, there are 130,476 registered medical practitioners in total in Australia, and 11,114 practitioners registered as specialists.
GCA patients at high risk of thoracic AA
Patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) have a markedly increased risk of developing thoracic aortic aneurysms (AA), aortic dissections (AD), but no increased risk of abdominal AA, a Danish study has shown.
The review of registry days for 9,908 GCA patients compared their risk of AA and AD to almost 100,000 age and sex-matched people in the general population
Compared with the reference populations, the 15-year relative risk for thoracic AA was
11.2, while the risk for AD was 6.86 and the risk of AA was 1.04.
The median time to thoracic AA was 7.5 years and the numbers needed to screen were 250 after five years, 91 after ten years, and 53 after 15 years.
The risk factors for developing thoracic AA in GCA patients were female sex, age below 70 years, and positive temporal artery findings , according to the study findings published in Rheumatology
Specialty training colleges’ ‘dirty secret’
Training colleges, consultants, and hospital executives have been blamed for enabling ongoing abuse and overwork of registrars, in an article about specialty training written by an anonymous junior doctor deploring what they describe as medicine’s ‘dirty secret’.
Published in mainstream newspapers this week, the article entitled ‘Distressed doctors don’t bend, so they break’ describes a training regime that encourages mental distress and suicide among registrars who are given a heavy workload and responsibilities but no support from senior doctors or management.
“They are the first to arrive at the hospital and the last to leave. You are told not to make waves, to keep your head down, to get through it. You are often working unsupervised with vast responsibilities and unsupportive distant supervisors. The less you complain, the more you’re willing to endure, the more attractive and hireable you become. Troublemakers do not get hired,” it says.
The article says the current approach by training colleges is flawed because “the focus has been on coping with abuse rather than ending abuse.”
“The medical fraternity needs to host a meaningful discussion about how to fix our training system to provide more support for doctors and improve their wellbeing. Workload is an issue but the crux of the problem is the lack of support from those in authority,” it concludes.