Aussie specialists get '$28K a day'

CANBERRA - Some eye specialists are earning up to A$28,000 ($35,420) a day performing cataract surgery, a anaesthetist has complained to the federal government.

"In my 24 years as a specialist anaesthetist I have never witnessed anything quite as disgusting," he told Health Minister Nicola Roxon in an email.

The anonymous anaesthetist who works in the public hospital system said ophthalmologists do not have the support of others in the medical profession.

The government and specialists are warring over plans to halve the Medicare rebate for cataract surgery.

The government says the average annual payment ophthalmologists receive from Medicare is A$585,000, of which A$154,000 is from cataract procedures alone.

Last year the highest-earning specialists received at least A$1 million through Medicare, it said.

The government says data from the International Federation of Health Funds 2009 shows Australian ophthalmologists are the highest paid in the world, receiving double their counterparts in the US.

- AAP