Imagining a Doctor Shortage

By HANS DUEVEFELT, MD Now, I’m just a country doctor, but I have to say I find it very hard to understand why folks in this country on one hand keep talking about a doctor shortage in primary care and on the other hand keep piling sillywork on those of us who are still here. The net effect is that the doctor shortage is going to be a whole lot worse than it has to be. But it may just be a relative or imaginary shortage because of how this country defines the duties of doctors. Public Health agendas have infiltrated health care to a degree that threatens to paralyze it. Physicians are increasingly told their primary concern should be their “population” and not their individual patients. We are charged with preventing disease rather than treat it. But… Public Health clinics regularly provide travelers with necessary immunizations. Pharmacists are now giving pneumonia and shingles shots on prescription and flu shots without. States are mandating immunizations for children, and penalizing physician practices with low immunization rates. There are whole departments within every level of Government trying to get people tho behave in healthier ways. Why should we take the heat for something you don’t need a medical license to do? A physician’s duty is first and foremost to serve each patient’s needs in treating actual disease. Isn’t that what people worry about when they imagine how a physician shortage would affect them? Let’s think: Who would worry that with a p...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs