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Nothing destroys trust faster than the suspicion you’re being treated — or not treated — because of your race.

We’ve now reached that special stage of national enlightenment where even medical emergencies are now to be judged — not by urgency, and not by injury — but by identity.

At St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, staff have been told to fast-track Indigenous patients — guaranteed to be seen within 30 minutes, regardless of their medical condition.

Because, apparently, equality now means two queues: one for those who need medical help, and one for those who tick the right box.

Wrong Solution

Now, don’t get me wrong. Nobody denies there’s a tragic gap in health outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

But here’s a wild idea: maybe, just maybe, we fix that by improving access to care rather than by turning hospital triage into a race-based lottery.

Because the moment you say ‘this patient goes first because of race’, you’ve stopped doing medicine and started doing politics.

It’s not triage anymore, it’s tribal.

Picture this:

You stagger into Emergency, clutching your chest. The nurse glances up from her clipboard and says:

“Right. Before we get you on oxygen, I just need to ask… what’s your heritage?”

Because apparently that’s now medically relevant. Who knew your bloodline could change your blood pressure?

Racist and Divisive

We used to fast-track people based on how close they were to death. Now it’s how close they are to Indigenous ancestry.

And yes, I can already hear the bureaucrats:

“But this is about fixing inequality! This is about compassion!”

There’s nothing compassionate about treating the guy with the splinter before the guy with the broken leg because the guy with the splinter is black.

Here’s the irony: the hospital says it’s doing this to build trust.

But nothing destroys trust faster than the suspicion that you’re being treated — or not treated — because of your race.

People need to believe that when they walk into an emergency room, they’ll be seen for what’s wrong with them, not what they look like.

And you know, this is the same country that used to swear blind that dividing people by race was wrong.

We literally just had a national referendum rejecting racial division in the Constitution.

So naturally, the next logical step is… racial division in the Emergency waiting room. Because we never learn, we just rebrand.

If a hospital genuinely wants to close the health gap, here’s a radical suggestion… provide better access for all people in remote areas.

But don’t punish one group of patients to make another feel better. That’s not equity; that’s guilt with a stethoscope.

Once you start separating people by race for medical treatment, you’ve pretty much admitted that “equality” is no longer the goal.

You’ve replaced it with moral theatre — performed at the bedside, starring you as the “ally” and everyone else as an extra.

In a sane society, the question would be simple:

“How sick are you?”

Not:

“Which racial category are you in?”

But apparently, we’re not living in a sane society anymore; we’re living in one big diversity workshop with IV drips.

So, congratulations, Victoria. You’ve finally cured racism: by institutionalising it.

And the next time you’re sitting in Emergency, clutching your ribs, just remember:
The nurse will be with you… just as soon as she’s finished checking your ethnicity.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image courtesy of Adobe.