As I enjoy an early morning cuppa, from my newly acquired Forestry Tasmania mug and ponder whether it will be collectors item in future years, I recall the recent visits to the Doctors Surgery.

It has become somewhat of a social event, catching up with people from the district in the waiting room.

Comparing aches and pains, symptoms of lethargy and skin irritations;  it seems almost a rude interruption to the dialogue when ones name is called.

A sobering thought is that with the myriad of endocrine cancers in the community, one wonders whether the results from the last blood test will indicate it is your turn for bad news.

Dunking a biscuit, it strikes me that in this digital age we should not have to endure the frequent ordeal of needles.

Why can’t we get a USB or Firewire connection fitted in elective surgery? Possibly the new Rudd Government Health Plan will allow for this on Medicare. It would certainly save the doctor time and permit more interaction in the waiting room.

Blood on Demand (BOD) would allow blood test results instantly in PDF format, saving the transportation cost to Launceston and the delay in diagnosis. A similar facility could be made available for Urine tests and they could be published in Wee DF.

Being that digital information is more readily and easily diagnosed by an IT expert, it would also allow the doctor more time for treatment and the diagnostic people could turn to palliative care as the burgeoning industry builds.

Another sip at my mug of tea gives rise to the thought that possibly Mr Bartlett could return to IT and do some real good for the community at large, instead of pandering to the needs of an extinct species. Mr Lennon could also return to public service and help with the fast track processing of these test results.

A simple procedure, the fitting of a USB would actually save the country billions in health costs, remove the need for many country people to visit city hospitals and create, via a retraining programme, work for helicopter pilots and ground crews, as they wind down the defunct aerial spraying programme.

The downside is that with aerial spraying off the agenda, many of the symptoms will disappear, the next generation cancers will return to normal levels and the need for IT people will cease to exist, at least in medicine.

I take a final swig and empty the dark green mug, ironically resplendent in toxic Eucalypt leaves and realise that being a politician is no easy job.

One could be forgiven for thinking that looking after a dinosaur and keeping forestry contractors in employment is the only work the State Government has to do. Indirectly, it is keeping thousands of health professionals in work and giving some real purpose to all that university education.

Perhaps there is more to it than I imagined and maybe I should leave politics to the politicians and make another cuppa.