1st GP site visit

I've been through alot of 'firsts' since arriving in melbourne. So for the record, here's another one.

Today's GP visit went smoothly. I was expecting to see a run down old shophouse-like-clinic, yet was greeted with a very pleasant old cottage that had been refurbished (complete with parquet flooring etc). The interior was very homely, not at all like a conventional clinic.

I got to see around 11 patients today. Literally, as I wasn't allowed to interview them. Of the lot, only 1 belonged to the normal weight bracket. Another was slightly overweight. The rest were massive. In the olden days, men fought bloody wars to expand their countries. Today, we've gotta fight fatty wars to shrink ours.

3 of the patients had depression. Bolded so it doesn't come across too nonchalantly. Its a terrible condition to have, especially given our current treatment options which, by the way, do FAR more harm than good. But that is another story.

I also found out my GP did acupuncture! Its an eye opener, really, to find that the Australian healthcare system is so open to alternative treatments. And we Singaporeans fondly call our little country 'the island where East meets West'. We are fooling ourselves. Especially when oriental medicine and western medicine in Singapore are not encouraged to meet. Western medicine will always be gao gao zai shang (far superior) and oriental medicine lian shi dou bu ru (not even worth a shit), given the way things are in Singapore; our healthcare saystem and laws do not protect TCM physicians, they are poorly paid, not highly respected etc.