Just wanted to say good luck to the juniors who are striking today. Let them see how much they need you.
Don’t let anyone guilt you. You deserve fair pay and working conditions like the rest of us.
Signed
- Your Nursing Coworkers
A distinguished pediatrician who went public with his view that gender-distressed teenagers cannot possibly consent to transgender mastectomies has been hit with a complaint from the health professions regulator.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency surfaced a six-month-old anonymous complaint against Professor Gary Geelhoed within days of him challenging AHPRA over its treatment of Queensland psychiatrist Dr Andrew Amos, who was banned earlier this year from social media commentary on pediatric medical transition.
Professor Geelhoed, a former chief medical officer of Western Australia and ex-director of the emergency department at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, was quoted in a January 2026 article in The Australian, which reported that the Perth Children’s Hospital gender clinic enables the referral of teenage girls to the private sector for double mastectomies to “affirm” their trans identities.
“How does a 13-year-old understand the loss of fertility, the loss of sexual function, a shortened lifespan? There’s no way they could.”
Also in January, Professor Geelhoed, who served as Assistant Director General for Health WA, wrote an opinion article for Gender Clinic News in which he said the hormonal and surgical treatment promoted as “gender-affirming care” for minors represented “the biggest medical scandal of my time in medicine”.
On July 16 this year, he submitted a complaint to AHPRA deploring its February 26 “immediate action” order that Dr Amos cease his online criticism of affirmative treatment for minors as a practice based on identity politics not medical evidence.
In his complaint, Professor Geelhoed wrote: “Dr Amos’s principled stance aligns with the growing international caution and the precautionary principle of ‘first, do no harm’. The rising number of detransitioners pursuing legal action against providers (internationally) further underscores the real risks of rushing medicalisation without robust evidence.
“Silencing experienced clinicians like Dr Amos through regulatory sanctions does a disservice to public discourse, clinical autonomy, and, most importantly, vulnerable young patients.”
Five business days later, an AHPRA official phoned Professor Geelhoed sounding apologetic to be belatedly sending him a complaint targeting his remarks six months ago in The Australian and Gender Clinic News. The anonymous complaint was lodged in February this year.
The complainant objected to Professor Geelhoed’s characterisation of under-age medical transition as a scandal, his description of mastectomies as “mutilating surgery”, and his general framing of “gender-affirming care as ideologically driven and poorly evidenced”, AHPRA said by email on July 23.
“The (complainant) advised that Dr Geelhoed is used as a key authority voice to legitimise this framing, reiterating his call for an Australia-wide ban (on hormonal and surgical interventions with minors),” AHPRA said. His comments were said to be “reasonably likely to damage the reputation of the medical profession”.
In his reply to AHPRA, Professor Geelhoed said: “I stand by my assessment that the medicalisation of gender-confused young people under the affirmative model constitutes one of the most serious failures of evidence-based medicine in my professional lifetime.
“I described certain surgeries as ‘mutilating’ because they involve the irreversible removal or alteration of healthy tissue in the absence of robust evidence of net benefit, and in the presence of emerging evidence of possible harm.
“I do regard the rapid adoption of the affirmative model, in the face of weak evidence and rising numbers of desisters and detransitioners, as having been driven more by ideology and advocacy than by conventional standards of evidence-based medicine.
“This view is shared by the authors of the (UK) Cass Review, the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian health authorities, and an increasing number of clinicians and researchers internationally.”
Professor Geelhoed said the real risk to the reputation of the medical profession “lies in continuing to provide irreversible interventions to minors on the basis of low-quality evidence while dismissing systematic reviews and international policy reversals as ‘transphobic’.”
On July 20, AHPRA deflected Professor Geelhoed’s appeal on behalf of Dr Amos by saying it could not breach confidentiality.
We appreciate that this can be frustrating, particularly where there has been public discussion about a matter. However, our legal obligations apply consistently, regardless of the level of public interest or commentary,” AHPRA said.
The agency had nothing to say in response to Professor Geelhoed’s July 16 statement that “AHPRA’s close association with (trans activist) organisations such as ACON raises serious questions about perceived impartiality when adjudicating what are fundamentally clinical and scientific matters”.
He told The Australian last week that the potential loss of his non-practising registration was not the issue because he was already retired. But he said there were important principles involved: the impartiality of the regulator; the disincentive for other practitioners to follow Dr Amos and do their duty to speak out against a medical scandal; and the “shutting down” of critical debate of the gender-affirming treatment model.
“AHPRA are overstepping the mark. If a doctor is expressing views that come from the heart, where he’s worried about the welfare of children and adolescents, and he is raising concerns that other people around the world have actually acted on, then the idea that he should be sanctioned (by the regulator) is just wrong,” he said.
“Science is all about looking for the truth. We’re never going to get to the truth, but we should be trying to move closer to it all the time, and the evidence will change. And we should then have the humility to change and say, OK, we can do this better.
“But that’s completely shut down in this area – the gender treatment of young children – because there’s a fixed opinion that’s set in stone. And so, the evidence is irrelevant because it’s a belief – it’s akin to a religion.”
The Australian asked AHPRA if there was any connection between Professor Geelhoed’s July 16 challenge to the regulator and the surfacing of a six-month-old complaint against him.
AHPRA did not answer the question, but said that “Under the National Law, we are limited in what we can say publicly about an individual practitioner or matter”.
“AHPRA is committed to free speech and the right of practitioners to enter into professional and public debates. However, if commentary becomes demeaning or denigrating, or directed toward specific members of the community, AHPRA and the National Boards may take regulatory action.”
AHPRA are quickly becoming the thought police and this is once again another example of complaints being weaponised and free speech being restricted.
alright sorry for doomposting (not really) but for me it was when i realised that many (not all) colleagues who looked impressive on paper with multiple leadership roles, qualifications, research projects are absolute monkeys and that all the posturing doesn’t equate to being an an adequate clinician or even a good person and compassionate doctor.
the other is the scam state of medical colleges taking thousands of dollars from each member at any opportunity possible with no transparency on how it’s spent. and then releasing public statements which are lip service of health advocacy while still individually treating junior doctors like expendable dirt.
anyway how’s your wednesday going..
Poor guy and his family. It must have been busy that night but missing both ECG changes and a positive trop are indefensible.
The news follows a historic revolt at the major Sydney hospital, where senior doctors demanded a parliamentary probe into management and NSW Health.
Just wondering if anyone's received interviews for the 'big 4' (gross term) - RNSH / RPA / POW / St Vincent's yet? I've heard of outer sydney interviews being conducted already, just wanting to scope it out a bit :~) thanks all
I am an Intern and was really hoping that I might get a RCH JRMO position for next year…. but I haven’t.
I feel like I had a competitive application - I’ve done an paediatric internship rotation, I had two paediatric consultant referees from that rotation, I’m studying the DCH, I thought I went ok in the interview (even though a lot of the questions felt very subjective).
I’m not sure if there was something missing from my application? Or is it just a lack of clinical experience that makes me less competitive compared to others? I have heard of interns getting on to the program, so I thought I had a reasonable chance.
But now I’m feeling incredibly flat. This year to put it bluntly, has sucked. Paeds was the only rotation that felt like a glimmer of hope for me, and I dread having to reconcile with going back to more adult rotations next year, only to potentially apply, and not get in again.
I know this is part of the job and I’m sure many of you feel you have had much higher mountains to climb.
How did you keep going? It feels like a daily battle of me trying to reconcile whether this has all been worth it, and whether I’ll ever be cut out for the job and desirable enough to get on to paeds.
Hi all
I was just wondering about the experience of working in Canberra vs QLD. I’m trying to decide between the two, and I ideally would like to go metro
I know Queensland probably pays better. But I was curious about career progression, training programs etc.
Any insight is appreciated
We are both in healthcare. My brother is pgy1. I'm in retail pharmacy (I'm the sister). We are both in our 20s.
My brother found a job in darwin for 1 year, so it's not guaranteed if he will get his contract extended or remain in darwin after the 1 year is finished.
I do like my job in retail pharmacy, but I don't like the micromanaging and being yelled at or criticised by the owner of the pharmacy. I've never been yelled at so much before as an adult. The last time I was yelled at like this was when i was in primary school. My boss/owner actually yells at me at the top of her lungs in front of staff, multiple times over the past few months. She is usually nice for a few weeks before she suddenly yells again. And she only yells at me.
So I guess I want to find a new job to escape this toxic workplace, have a change of scenery interstate (darwin), and having my brother there will mean I won't experience homesickness much.
I can definitely find a new job anywhere else, and this includes darwin.
But usually, you hear people moving jobs to be with their significant other or their family.
You rarely hear people saying they're moving because they're brother found a job interstate. Is it weird I'm moving to darwin because my brother will be there too.
Me and my brother have both been to darwin for short study trips and we loved it.
You can still stop work from ED/ICU:
”Here’s what you need to know:
What’s the vibe like at everyone’s hospital? I really hope we can maintain momentum and get our message across
Hi all,
Are there any JMO/SNR docs here with depression? How has it been handled? How have you handled it? How has it affected you?
I’m a 3rd year and just been diagnosed with depression and medicated. This past year has been the hardest of my life for no particular reason it just *happened*. I’ve felt paralysed all year and haven’t been able to work, study or enjoy any life (I have a very monumental life outside of medicine, no details in fear of anyone knowing this is me). This was seriously the worst year of my life, what sucked most is how I was/felt is NOTHING like myself. I’m not one to be like “omg I can’t work, ugh studying is so hard” I’ve always been that typical go-getter, gunner, yet this year has made me seriously consider dropping out as I don’t think in this position I’d be a good doctor.
Essentially what I’m asking is are there doctors who struggle with mental health and still succeed? How hard were JMO years? How did you get through junior years/training? How did the unpredictability, environment changes, nights, etc affect you? Were you given any type of support/accomodation? Were you faced with prejudice? Etc
I don’t know if I want to be convinced to leave or convinced to stay - I do want to be told what I’m actually in for.
hi doctors! bit of an unusual post but it's my doctor brother's birthday soon, and i'd really like to get him a thoughtful gift.
he's been talking about getting a watch that a lot of other doctors have, but idk what this watch is. he tells me everyone in the hospital has a particular kind of watch and so i'd like to look into buying him one (even though i'm confused why you're wearing anything on your wrists so would he even be able to use it or will this be a useless gift cuz he doesn't wear watches on a daily basis anyway?)
also, he's been talking about open-ear headphones, like the ones where you can listen to oncoming calls but still be able to hear everything outside of the headphones if that makes sense. he tells me that a lot of cool registrars use them at work and they can conveniently receive and respond to calls anytime with those earphones. could anyone suggest what brand/model these could be?
sorry if these questions sound a bit silly. as an older brother, he's constantly buying me things and as a broke student, i'd like to finally buy something nice 😊
otherwise, does anyone have any other recs on what a doctor might like? um help i hope he doesn't see this post and realise its about him LMAO
Edit: wow thank you everyone for all your responses! They really did help! I narrowed it down to Shokz headphones, patagucci, even thought about getting figs and compression socks. But in the end, he revealed himself and said he wanted Sony headphones out of everything so I just bought him them 😂😂
Where does one purchase a big oversized tendon hammer commonly seen with the BPT briefcase brigades? Quick google search revealed one website which appears dodgy at best but am I being overly skeptical?
Hello all,
I completed my MD in Psychiatry , recently graduated and wanted to live a well balanced life,which would be a better country if i graduated recently (one year post MD) and I am passionate about my degree but yet at the same time don't want to drain myself.. i am thinking of australia..this is a bit silly post but ur opinions would be of great help
Thank you 😊
Hey guys,
As the title suggests, does anyone have any tips on getting free-ish access to UpToDate and/or ClinicalKey?
I'm a trainee in Melbourne if that makes any difference.
Much appreciated!
What speciality were you able to succeed in?
How did you cope with night shifts?
Were you able to get any accommodations regarding night shifts?
I got diagnosed with Bipolar 1 in med school and I have been stable on meds, will be graduating this year and starting internship next year. Going into med school I wanted to choose a speciality that I liked the most, but I’ve noticed that most specialities require night shifts at least for a portion of the training period. I’ve been told that night shifts increases a risk of a relapse.
Feeling a bit deflated that I’ll have less options growing up. It’s like I have an invisible disability.
Applied for crit care SRMO roles in the current NSW campaign, 20+ applications total and just a single interview offer. Have heard friends already heard back from other hospitals, meanwhile I have only received an interview offer from 1 of the applications and 3 rejections without an interview.
Is it common for hospitals to just not respond at all? I would have assumed if they saw your CV and don’t want to interview you that they will outright give you a rejection?
I am also an international application but went through med school/completed internship and residency in Australia. Does that impact my application strength at all?
Is anyone following this?!
I even don’t know where to start with this one.