Whine of the week: Dr Paul Miniter

I awoke to Dr Minitar on 666 a week ago, and I couldn’t believe it.

Around 6 years ago, Dr Minitar reconstructed my knee after I’d done an Anterior-Cruciate Ligament playing soccer. I had it done privately, because I didn’t want to wait a year or two in the public system.

He was then a visiting surgeon from Sydney. I found him extremely professional, very communicative, and my knee has stood the test of time.

I believe that Dr Minitar would not have taken lightly the step he took to go public. I wish him well in his campaign, but it seems that everyone including the Minister and even Johnboy from riotact an ‘independent’ media voice, has dismissed his claims.

I’m sorry but if due process means making a submission to a Departmental process, then I can understand Dr Minitar going to the press with his concerns. The fact that he’s being pilloried for it is very disappointing.

What chance do any other whistle blowers have if a surgeon going public gets shot down in flames.

A good surgeon who is getting lots of referrals from local GPs who agree the surgeon is good probably wouldn’t be too worried about not getting a hospital VMO position.

put patients on the panels, too, and see how well the applicants do then…

Some of these positions aren’t the same as other jobs either – its about allowing someone to have admitting rights to the hospital and they get perks like car parking etc – often its like they are able to provide their services there.
The issue is often about whether VMOs should be appointed in the first place – sometimes hiring staff specialists is more cost effective but people in private practice don’t want to do it.
Orthopaedics appears to be very money hungry game.

I-filed said :

Ian said :

I’m with johnboy on this. All other things being equal(ish) you pick the person you want to work with, that you think fits your team better.

Also, if someone doesn’t want me, I probably don’t want to work for them.

That’s corruption and nepotism – exactly the problem we cane developing countries for – and reflects an inability to work with people on a professional basis. If a person is an arsehole they are going to get bad references, so where’s the real risk?

You’d hope they get a bad reference – but who is going to submit a bad reference? The real risk is that I’ve selected many a person with an outstanding reference, a beautifully written application and could charm the pants off a nun, and they’ve become my worst nightmare to work with – chasing off good people and failing to produce anything.

I’m not saying I don’t believe in the process of merit based selection – but you have to listen to your gut instincts. Sadly, on a few ocassions I haven’t and have paid the price.

Imagine the uproar if the Minister did get involved.

johnboy said :

Because every time someone doesn’t get a job it should go straight to the Minister? Get real!

Snap! I was thinking the same thing – as the minister has nothing better to do than listen to people whinge about the unfairness of it all, presuming to actually know that they were better than anyone else who applied for the job, and that the panel were all in cahoots. These people would be the first to whine that Ministers aren’t doing their job and giving the public value for money either.

And let’s just say that the panel didn’t pick him because they didn’t like him and liked the successfuls better, and not because he wasn’t the best applicant for the position. Why the hell would a sane, reasonable and rational person want to work with those people anyway?!

Delusional, paranoid people with an over-inflated sense of entitlement will be the death of any work team, as this carry-on is just the tip of the ice berg. Yay panel!

I-filed said :

Ian said :

I’m with johnboy on this. All other things being equal(ish) you pick the person you want to work with, that you think fits your team better.

Also, if someone doesn’t want me, I probably don’t want to work for them.

That’s corruption and nepotism – exactly the problem we cane developing countries for – and reflects an inability to work with people on a professional basis. If a person is an arsehole they are going to get bad references, so where’s the real risk?

It’s not either of those things. It’s just that there are intangible or unwritten criteria used when hiring people. It’s wrong and stupid when you hire people who are not competent because they’re your friend or something, but if candidates are approximately equal on other criteria you choose the one you think will fit best.

And like johnboy says, references are often not worth the paper they’re written on or the time taken to make the phone calls. People fudge to be nice, and to offload problems.

johnboy said :

Because many employees give good references to offload their arseholes.

spot on.

johnboy said :

Because many employees give good references to offload their arseholes.

Sadly this is true. When one of my cow-orkers recently got a new position (same pay rate but a much more important one) I could not believe it. But I was mighty pleased to see their back.