Please everybody sign this petition to abolish the $2000 a year cap on tax-deductions for professional education. For those of you who are not aware, those of us junior doctors on specialty training programs are not "fat cats" enjoying first class travel to conferences in resorts and claiming it on our tax returns. You might be surprised to discover that our anaesthetics education costs a lot - the community rightly expects us to be at the top of our game and yet even these bare minimum expenses grossly exceed the $2000 a year cap: College registration annual fee: $2631 Exam fees (of which there are several during our training): $4011 Other expenses include university fees (eg Masters of Education in order to make myself a better clinical teacher, which is something I often do in my own unpaid time), courses to attend to prevent failure in these enormously expensive examinations as well as journal subscriptions and attending training workshops). The only other choice is subsidisation of our education by industry. Our profession frowns upon this due to a conflict of interest - if a drug company pays for my education, you can bet that the drug they are selling will feature prominently. Studies have shown that we are all susceptible to such marketing and it influences our prescribing, and therefore we avoid such "educational" activities in order to ensure our patients receive the best care regardless of marketing. So please sign the petition to continue to encourage doctors to do the right thing by the community - to treat patients safely, effectively and in a manner based upon the most up to date impartial evidence.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 07:53:48 +0000
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