Ok, so when someone has needed a scan, please point to any media article where that scan has had to be delayed due to waiting lists. That should show youāre right. As I canāt recall any AFL footballer ever having to wait a meaningful amount of time to get a scan.
What weāre saying is more information is better than less information.
We are not questioning that they arenāt following standard medical procedure. As someone who works with doctors and nurses, and sees heaps of medical malpractice cases, I know very well that medical procedure is frequently rubbish.
What we are saying is that the procedure for elite sportsmen at a rich club shouldnāt follow standard procedures, and we should be ultra cautious given the failures weāve seen with our players diagnosis in the past.
As simple evidence, there have been ample articles over the last two decades of how Australian sportās science and health treatments have lagged the best practice at the elite clubs in soccer, NRL and NBA.
So we know for a fact that the AFL has not always been in best practice. So why the hell wouldnāt we question this?
Read my lips
People who need scans have to wait, regardless of their health insurance cover.
I donāt need a media article - I, and many others I know, have first hand experience of this.
You are wrong - for once suck it up
( which I canāt recall you ever doing)
Meanwhile back to Zerk - letās see if heās named on Thursday for the weekend game - that might settle an argument or two.
So why are AFL footballers all at Olympic Park getting scans on a Monday for things that happened over the weekend? Are you saying they book in that morning and receive a spot straight away? Or maybe just maybe they get priority treatment in terms of when they get it.
Surprisingly thereās no magical dedicated AFL hospital for the ~300 AFL players in Melbourne. They go to normal private hospitals, wherever their preferred ortho has a list at.
Neither is there a separate, cash only imaging clinic.
Re: scanning at Olympic park.
Saw a Sports Dr (at Olympic Park) roughly this time last year for an ankle injury.
Sent me next door for an MRI which I had 10 minutes later and cost me nothing as it got bulk billed.
Sometimes itās who you know.
Yep. I imagine the AFL club doctors have these contacts as well - part of the reason they have their job. Hence players are always scanned when needed - other than in Zerk-Thatcherās case.
Not sure how bad his injury is but itās unfortunate timing given Ambroseās injury. Not saying heād be an automatic inclusion but heād be damn close. Especially if the plan is to play Hooker forward more often.
I had exactly the same a few years back. Immediate scan at no cost. Two weeks back my son had a scan for a bad ankle, had to book as there were no slots available. Re the charge/gap, got some back but still paid about $200 for the MRI I think, more than my bulk billed $0.
The doc did comment that the imaging centre is always chockers on Mondays, and not necessarily AFL- they get everything from u12 netballers to dirt-biking tradies who wreck things on the weekend.
For pretty much all these injuries though you are non weight bearing and RICE ing regardless, so waiting for a scan really makes no difference unless you really stuff up the diagnosis. For my son the initial GP said it was just a rolled (low) ankle, but I knew it wasnāt. Was a syndesmosis (high ankle) for which any early attempt at weight bearing might have caused more damage because of bone movement over cartilage. Sports docs at footy clubs arenāt making that GP mistake.