Linda Calabresi

Sydney

Medical Editor at The Medical Republic

Medical Editor at Healthed

GP, blogger, writer, Australian Doctor stalwart, mother, wife, friend

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Articles

Diary of a GP: Getting it right

Nov 26, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

I am very grateful to know voluntary assisted dying is being practised in NSW with such professionalism and humanity. We all have stories about the failings of our current health system. We can all think of patients who we have referred to some tertiary service only to have them receive substandard or inadequate care. This is not such a story. This is the story of my first encounter with a voluntary assisted dying service.
Diary of a GP: Whose life is it anyway?

Oct 1, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

We’re the doctors and we know best. Right? It was there in my messages, first thing Monday morning. Please contact the hospital geriatrician, Dr S (mobile phone number included – so you know they seriously want to contact you) – about your patient, Ken. I knew it was only a matter of time till I got this phone call.
Diary of a GP: Stop the cherry-picking

Sep 2, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

I don’t want to be left to ‘only manage the more complex stuff’. I need that light and shade in my day. I know it shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does – but I can’t help it. It is in my face every time I go to work. The banner outside the next-door pharmacy. In essence it says: “Got symptoms of a UTI? Come talk to us!” Really??!! I love the pharmacists next door – they are truly lovely people and very competent pharmacists.
Feel free to arrest now

Aug 13, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

The colleges should be supporting GPs and promotion of relevant education rather than pandering to a CPD curriculum that focuses on process over substance. It is amazing how quickly three years flies by. I could’ve sworn I only did my last CPR refresher course a couple of years ago but no, it was that time again.
Diary of a GP: Some days are diamonds, some days are stones

Jul 11, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

Tomorrow is another day and the one thing you can depend upon is that no two days are ever the same in general practice. But for now, I need a scotch. Some days are just tougher than others in general practice. We all have common frustrations – the printer jams, the authority prescribing line is on go-slow, the batteries in the auroscope have gone flat. These can certainly put a dent in one’s mood, especially when they all happen at once, but generally these are par-for-the-course days.
Diary of a GP: The double standards are ridiculous

Jun 11, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

We are held more and more tightly to medicolegal account while the health cowboys run rampant. It’s just before 8am and I’m driving to work – prime time for radio advertising. On comes an ad for some fantastic Australian-made herbal supplement for men who have urinary frequency. No diagnosis necessary. A simple case of “you have an annoying symptom – take this and it will help”.
Eviction notice for house calls

Mar 27, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

We all know house calls are under-remunerated pains in the bum. But don’t blame the reluctant GPs. Who will look after our poor old home visit patients when we retire? That was how our “debrief” session started after one of our fairly standard full-on days at the surgery last week. My friend, colleague and fellow GP is set to retire at the end of the year after over 30 years at the practice.
Diary of a GP: Continuing Professional Debacle

Feb 20, 2024 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

Whoever designed this waste of our precious unpaid time should show us the evidence behind it. Another year, another plan. I know I’m a bit slow off the mark. We’re already two months down in 2024.
Diary of a GP: Mistletoe musings

Dec 5, 2023 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

The column where we ditch the doom for a minute and celebrate the positives to come out of this year. It seems, all of a sudden, that Christmas is just around the corner. You’d think after all these decades on this earth I could avoid this sense of panic that hits me in early December when I realise my to-do list has once again become my impossible-to-get-done list!But despite the panic, I love Christmas. I love it all – not only the actual day but the whole time of year.
Diary of a GP: An insight into courage

Oct 24, 2023 | medicalrepublic.com.au | Linda Calabresi

Some patients have strength and persistence we can only aspire to. For better or worse, we as GPs often get to see people’s true nature – a real understanding of what makes an individual tick.