After reading articles lately about people dying in hospital waiting rooms while waiting to see a doctor, makes one wonder how would we cope in time of war. We are told that there is a shortage of doctors. In Queensland there was a report on the news that one of our hospital has been flying in New Zealand doctors for a couple of days. I wonder if our army navy and airforce are training their own doctors or would they be taken from private practice John
Can help there. The Armed Forces run a kind of apprentice scheme, where any university student can sign up with them, and the forces payroll them through university and pay their fees too. In return the student must agree to undertake full army training in holidays/weekends and do so many days a year like the TA do. At the end of their training, so long as they graduate, they are then offered a choice to stay with the forces, whereupon they must serve a minimum number of years calculated from what they have already cost the forces, or they can withdraw from the deal and go their own way. They particularly like medical students to sign up as they then join up for a minimum of 5 years for the Forces medical corps. Generally a lot of medical students then also sign up after graduating anyway as they get first class training in all things surgical etc and can walk into any job they like.
