Doc Down Under

As a followup to my last post, Mr Philip Ruddock, the Australian attorney general has confirmed that a doctor who worked as a medical registrar at Brisbane's Gold Coast Hospital has been detained in connection with the failed terrorist bombings in London and Glasgow.

The doctor, who was apparently not at Australian citizen, was stopped at Brisbane airport, according to reports from the BBC, and is said to have been in posession of a one-way ticket out of the country.

It's good to see that international coordination isn't the sole province of terrorist organisations, at any rate, although the concept of a shadowy global network of death-dispensing doctors is going to take some getting used to.

To date, doctors have generally been seen as a force for good, although, in my opinion, too many of them are altogether too smug by half, and a few are downright incompetent. But very rarely are they seen to be actually malicious towards their patients (towards other doctors, particularly those who are a little controversial, is another matter entirely).

That view may, of necessity, be about to change, and the outlook isn't at all good for doctors and patients alike.

Billy Seggars.