Question: What do you get when you pay a post-materialist doctor 50% more? The answer, if you’re Peter Beattie would appear to be: Two-thirds the person-hours for the same money.
In a move designed to encourage more doctors into the Queensland hospital system Peter Beattie increased the income of some junior doctors by up to 58%. But if you’re suddenly earning $200,000 per annum when you only need $133,000 what do you do with the extra $67,000? My sources tell me many doctors are actually going to use it to purchase quality of life, foresaking their full-time jobs for permanent part-time ones, leaving the health system no better off.
No-one should be really surprised by this. We’ve had polling telling us for some time that people are increasingly valuing quality of life over quantity of possessions. In fact it’s one of the reasons for the doctor shortage in the first place. Younger male doctors won’t work the hours older doctors routinely accepted. Younger female doctors won’t either, and they are going to take time out to have a family as well in many cases. The result – unless you train radically more graduates you are going to have doctor shortages. The number you need to train just went up another 50% thanks to Peter’s pay rise.
So throwing money at the problem would not appear to be a quick fix, although undoubtedly it will eventually help to persuade overseas doctors to fill the gaps. Afterall, where else in the world can you have our life-style and only need to work 28 hours a week to have enough money to enjoy it?