In “Primary-care physicians are playing beat the clock” (Tempo, Feb. 13), you mentioned that primary-care doctors are seeing too many patients to give them the time they need.
Two comments.
First, primary-care doctors are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to income. To make up for the low income, they are forced to see large numbers of patients or go out of business.
Second, a shortage of primary-care doctors has existed for 50 years. The medical schools are greatly to blame because they indoctrinate their students to shun traditional primary-care practices such as internal medicine and family medicine and encourage them to choose a narrower specialty instead.
Clearly the low reimbursements paid by health insurers and the medical schools’ unwillingness to encourage medical students to study primary care is a serious problem. Medical educators and lawmakers need to address it.
