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M.D.’s On Strike (Why Doctors Are Leaving And Why They Should Be Leaving)

April 7, 2007

Not so few medical schools and hospital training programs have closed because of the dramatic decrease in applicants. Only those medical schools, usually the long-established and big ones, can attain its yearly quota of enrollees. This is an indicator that a battle for survival has begun. As often the case, the strongest and the best adapted will survive. In smaller hospitals, junior consultants and “moonlighting” general practitioners go on 24-hour duties because of lack of residents-in-training. And in bigger hospitals, residents’ training year would begin with complete set of residents, only to depleted by midyear. One by one, they were dropping out of the training program in favor of a better job offer in private clinics, locally or abroad, or even job offers not in the medical field, such as call centers. Others would rather pursue a master’s degree in a different field; others study nursing, after which they leave the country.

So, why not dwell in a career that took almost half a lifetime to build? Why rather be anything but a doctor nowadays?
Work Not Satisfactorily Compensated

First of all, people have this erroneous notion of doctors being overwhelmingly wealthy. Driving around with luxury cars, wearing designer clothes, or globetrotting. This may be true for a handful but, what most people fail (and refuse) to know is that this image of the wealthy medical doctors should be treated obsolete. Most of the few remaining doctors who may be considered rich are those who have either come from wealthy families or have acquired their wealth through long, long years of stable medical practice or through businesses.

So, what about the other doctors? Doctors that have to compete for patients with several thousand others in the cities?

To setup a practice isn’t so easy, as one would think. No doctor could just admit his patients in any hospital. He has to pay for clinic space where he wants to practice and this could amount to anywhere from P300,000-P1,000,000 (in really “high-class” hospitals). Then he has to buy medical equipment necessary for his clinic, which could be from P15,000-P100,000.

So, how can a doctor, with all these expenses, gain back his investments with only a handful of patients per day?

Most people can’t simply imagine how a doctor, with long line of patients waiting outside his clinic, be anything but out of money. What people don’t know is that most of these patients consulted either for free, because being referred by a relative or friend, or with a discount on the professional fee (most of the patients, by the way, do ask for discounts in the professional fees). What is even more troubling is that, because people think doctors are rich, they continually beg for discounts on just about everything, thinking it wouldn’t really hurt the doctor. But the cumulative effect is that it does hurt, especially when everybody else will refuse to pay the amount that is rightfully due for his services rendered. People just fail to consider that the service they’ve been given took several years of study in the hell of medical school and hospital clerkship and internship and specialty training, not to mention the several hundred thousand bucks spent by hardworking parents.

It is sometimes so disappointing and disenchanting to hear some patients haggling doctor’s fees, as if they are in the market buying vegetables and meat, that it almost leaves a bitter taste in the mouth afterwards.

Patients’ Growing Mistrust of Doctors

I’d say this is a direct consequence of ordinary people being bombarded everyday with television and printed news of “bad” doctors and “bad” hospitals, not realizing that most of these stories are either incomplete or biased (after all, journalists aren’t forced to present both sides of the issues).

Several questions run in the minds of patients whenever they consult doctors. Is he competent enough? Can he diagnose my problem? Is he going to overcharge me?

And when the doctor begins probing their schedule of medications, habits, and diet, patients suddenly turn defensive: Is he trying to pin the blame on me? Is he telling me I’m not compliant with my medications? Is he telling me I’m not eating properly? Is he telling me my vices led me to my illness? No, no, no!

And thus, the denial of one’s responsibility for one’s actions ever increases.

As the TV character, Dr. House, succinctly puts it, patients lie. And they lie to cover up details of themselves deemed too intimate or too incriminating. The doctors’ job becomes all the more difficult with this lack of cooperation, stemming from mistrust. It’s like trying to feed a stubborn, obnoxious toddler with his healthy dose of leafy greens for the day: the more you insist, the more they resist. Waiting for the patient to willingly divulge that information (or try beating around the bush for eons) or consent to a diagnostic procedure is just like waiting for the stubborn child to finally open his mouth to take in that spoonful of food. One can understand such behavior in a child, but not in the adult patient.

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Written by Prudence · Filed Under Current Events, Health, Personal, Uncategorized 

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One Response to “M.D.’s On Strike (Why Doctors Are Leaving And Why They Should Be Leaving)”

  1. PinoyBlurker » Blog Archive » links for 2008-02-02 on February 2nd, 2008 11:19 pm

    [...] M.D.’s On Strike (Why Doctors Are Leaving And Why They Should Be Leaving) - PinoyBlogoSphere.com - Pinoy Bloggers Society (PBS) [...]

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