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« Green House Revolution | Main | Pre-Dementia »

July 29, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (1)

Primary Care

From the Daily Kos...

In every other industrialized nation, the medical care system is based on a solid foundation of primary care (generally defined as family medicine, primary care internal medicine, and general pediatrics). Specialist consultants are called in as needed. In England, for example, neary one half of practicing physicians are in primary care. In the United States, by contrast, the number is 35%; and it's falling like a stone. Among current medical school graduates, only 14% plan to enter primary care practice. Yet even this depressing number overestimates the future supply; an exploding percentage of graduates entering internal medicine residencies choose to specialize prior to graduation. Worse yet, the largest cohort of family doctors and internists—the idealistic graduates of the 1960's and 1970's—is on the verge of retirement. The number of doctors practicing primary care is about to go off a cliff. The immediate consequence is a spiralling workload for those still in practice. In the last two years, two of my partners left the practice to go into more lucrative areas of medicine. Their patients are now shoe-horned into my overbooked schedule. Three more docs in our group are on the verge of retirement. At best, we may get one young doc to replace them. Now, add a new national health insurance scheme or mandate—without addressing the dwindling supply of primary care docs—and things may quickly collapse. The pent-up demand for medical care among the uninsured and underinsured is huge. We have absolutely no reserve capacity to serve them.

Why is this happening?

Read the answer here...

Comments ( 1)

I think the answer is the same reason doctors do not specialize in geriatric medicine. The system sets up the specialists as a more "elite" group. Personally I think it is ridiculous but it is real. The insurance companies pay specialists more for patient visits----hospitals love procedures and surgeries. So the flow of the money evolves into specialties being considered as more desirable.

I am not a doctor but I lived in a hospital for almost a year when my parents were ill and I can say we are headed for trouble.

As we have more people live longer we need MORE doctors that can understand the whole person and his/her complex medical history. The pieces and parts approach just isn't good enough.

Louise M. Morman
www.EldercareLearnings.com

Posted by Louise Morman
July 29, 2008 11:37 PM

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