David Berger

Corruption ruins the doctor-patient relationship in India

Kickbacks and bribes oil every part of the country’s healthcare machinery, writes David Berger. If India’s authorities cannot make improvements, international agencies should act

Should doctors boycott working in Australia’s immigration detention centres?

However well intentioned, working in detention centres amounts to complicity in torture, says David Berger, but Steven Miles thinks that there are better ways to take action

When doctors start civil disobedience it’s time to take notice

Australia must repeal provisions of an act that can imprison doctors for doing the right thing

Refugees: time for moral leadership from the Western democracies

Australia sets a disgraceful example in its treatment of refugees

Time for an overhaul at the World Medical Association

Serious questions must be asked about its standards of governance

Australia’s torture of asylum seekers

It’s time for doctors to march

Australia’s law to gag doctors with concerns about asylum seekers is a failure of democracy

David Berger criticises Australia for legislating to stop doctors blowing the whistle on substandard medical care given to innocent people seeking protection

To be good physicians, we must all fight against the battle against cancer

I’m not a fighter, or at least I’m not a fighter when the fight is pointless. A fight “to beat” metastatic cancer is usually pointless. This use of military metaphors1 chimes with modern Western ideas about fighting injustice. It’s a compelling idea (how could anyone say fighting injustice was bad?), unites most of us with a common purpose, and helps …

Let’s be careful before restricting doctors’ freedom of speech

The idea that doctors should not be free to say things that some people may find uncomfortable or distasteful is deeply troubling for two reasons.1 Firstly, it is an infringement of our rights to free speech. That must not be taken away so lightly. Ask the Bahraini medics in detention what they think. Secondly, it stifles discussion …

Being realistic about travelling when old or sick

“But perhaps the main concern for doctors is that the extra work involved in preparing such patients for travel can be substantial.”1 Epstein’s article also strikes a chord with those of us on the receiving end of the traveller whose finely balanced medical condition suffers a meltdown in a remote area. Every dry season, our little hospital …