this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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36
Dr Fiona Stanley: ‘If we want better health outcomes, the last thing we need is more doctors and hospitals’ (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 6 days ago by hanrahan@slrpnk.net to c/australia@aussie.zone
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Interesting read about an interesting woman, couple of excerpts..

The trailblazing public health activist reflects on childhood dreams, hard-won lessons and why healthcare starts long before anyone gets sick

during her early days as a junior doctor at Princess Margaret hospital in Perth. “There was an Aboriginal boy, maybe four or five, who’d come in from a remote community,” she says. “He had severe diarrhoea and dehydration. And he died in my arms.” She pauses. “I was 25. And I remember thinking, I don’t know if I can keep doing clinical work. I need to understand how we prevent this.”

She recalls one trip to Narrogin – “one of the most racist towns in WA” – where a local doctor had refused to treat an Aboriginal child without upfront payment. “The mother raced the kid to Katanning and it died on the way,” she says. “So Eric and I got that doctor struck off the register.”

She’s outspoken about the dangers of the North West Shelf extension, describing climate change as “the biggest threat to human health”. Her disappointment over the failed voice to parliament referendum is equally fierce. “

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[–] SaneMartigan@aussie.zone 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Firstly I'm a bit suss as the whole thing feels a bit like PR for her book.

She’s proudly clutching a book called First Knowledges Health: Spirit, Country and Culture, which she co-authored.

However:

“We need systems that keep people well, not the systems that pick them up after they’re broken.”

The whole system is pretty fucked. People are overworked and underpaid so that the wealthy grifters of society can make as much profit as possible while grinding the population down to dust. It's no secret what's wrong with things and until we have an actual revolution about the way society works I don't see it changing.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We could start by treating insatiable greed as a mental illness and nipping it in the bud during early education.

[–] jimmux@programming.dev 11 points 6 days ago

It really is a mental illness, but it's normalised and celebrated.

[–] ProctorZeuss@aussie.zone 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The privatisation of healthcare is what's killing people, but by all means, ignore the problem, build more hospitals and hire more doctors while continuing to gut medicare and further limit people's ability to obtain affordable healthcare just so you can hoard more power and made up currency. Late stage capitalism is a cancer.

[–] CoolThingAboutMe@aussie.zone 1 points 5 days ago

Thanks for sharing! Have ordered her book :)