A friend, Dr. Olgrad Dabbert, a retired, excellent orthopedic surgeon sent me an article entitled "The Perversion of Medicine". In it he notes that "an abstract in the British Medical Journal (11/10/07) stated that the U.S. has the highest dissatisfaction with their health care system." How can that be when there is some extraordinary medical care in this country? Unforunately, the best medical care is found only if you can pay for it and are aggressive about finding the best doctors.
In these days when many plastic surgeons are making thousands and thousands of dollars from cosmetic surgery and paying PR firms large sums to make beautiful videos and Web sites for them, our health care seems to be focused on looking younger and living as long as possible. Many fourth year medical students are choosing dermatology as careers. This is because the hours are short, with no night or weekend calls and their incomes will be high if they give botox, do cosmetic procedures, and cater to those who want eternal youth.
No wonder the majority of people are dissatisfied with health care in this country if so many of our younger doctors are more interested in making money, having time off, and working a limited number of hours. Caring for patients was to me a special privlege. The patient's income made no difference in the care they received and the joy of medicine to me was keeping my patients well and being an important part of a family's support system. The young doctors who go into medicine to make money will never know the joy of practicing medicine that Dr. Dabbert and I and many other older doctors have experienced.
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