Put on your sympathy face. For years we've heard about doctors graduating in debt, suffering under the burdens of malpractice insurance, choosing to leave their fields or their areas of practice rather than risk financial ruin.....I guess this argument has not worked nearly as well as intended, somewhere in our collective consciousness we not it's baloney, doctors may not be earning as much as they hoped but they are earning plenty. Well, in Raleigh NC we have a new tactic--the fear tactic that has worked so well in other areas.
The Headline: "State Group Predicts Shortage of Primary Care Docs, posted on www.wral.com/news/local/story/2010282. Let's start with the proposed solutions as described in the article: a) expand medical schools with focus on recruiting more primary care docs b) more physician assistants and nurse practitioners c) ensure residents stay in NC
The biggest problem according to the quoted healers of tomorrow in the article: Money
Well, my response is let'er rip. The contribution of physicians in the current health care crisis is one of the most underreported aspects of this mess. A few suggestions: With the expanded use of non doctor personnel, maybe we don't need as many doctors so let the med students swell the choices among "specialists". It seems nuts that one of the solutions to the crunch would be to expand the use of such non-doctor personnel if they weren't capable of performing the functions that would be assigned, therefore, perhaps that $100,000 education isn't necessary to provide the functions that non-doctor personnel provide today and those planned for tomorrow.
Another really good thing about this article is that it reminds consumers that doctors are trained individuals entering a business. Give up the nobility of the ER shows and their ilk and get real. Doctors care about money--a lot.
If you screw up on your job, you're fired. If doctors screw up well, I guess we blame the patient, the lawyers suing or the fact that every person is different. You want to save money on malpractice insurance? Do your job better.
