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Medical school applications are up, but the number of residency slots is not increasing fast enough; Medicare funds a significant portion of the cost of residencies. Cut Medicare for residencies, and you have no place for some of the graduating medical students to finish their training.
Do any of you consider that doctors are also patients, also care-givers for their families, they also need to take time off work to attend to their own or their families health problems? Or that doctor has to find some time in their day to rush home to meet the plumber for maintenance because surprise surprise the plumber also wants to only work daytime.
That these doctors in addition to sitting in the office all day seeing patients also run in and out of hospitals early morning, evenings, nights, and weekends? That asking doctors to work extra hours of the week (because the 12 -16 hours/d they already work is not enough) means asking the receptionist, the nurse, the x-ray tech etc. etc. to also work extra hours? Forget the fact that the doctor is tied to his phone answering questions all night long from patients?
Maybe they INSIST on working majority day-time because that's when the rest of society wants to work also and doctors don't work in silos. Lets have
Show me one legitimate statistic that indicates doctor's pay is decreasing.
Show me one statistic that medical school applications are down.
Pay in real dollars has decreased from an across the board high around 1995; surgeons make 2/3s what they did. But, we don't work for money, we are too specifically trained in work where lives are at stake. Other health costs have gone up, though: hospital costs, imaging tests, drugs, therapies, and insurance premiums that pay for it all.
Medical school applications are up because anyone can go to medical school now. Thirty years-ago, you needed to be a white male and wealthy to get in. My class of 120 students who graduated in 1983 had 14 white women, four male blacks, two male Asians. In the 2013 graduating class of 120 students, 50% are women, 20% Asian, 15% black, 10% hispanic; and a full 90% of those take out government backed loans to pay for their degree.
Anyway, I'm 55 now, and I have put in around 65 hours a week for thirty years.
Folks, please return to the topic at hand - which I believe was doctors having more evening hours and was just some venting, and the fact that it is often difficult for employees who are caregivers to take off work during these hours and was also venting. We can't get into medical school or doctors' salaries, at least not in this forum. Venting? Oh yeah - that's part of why we're here! We just have to stay on topic, thanks.
OP, you could try discussing this issue with your relative's doctor. If the relative doesn't have to go to the dr. very often, perhaps the dr. would schedule an early evening (say 5-6 PM) appt. for you.
Lots of people, like myself think investment bankers and hedge fund managers make too much money---- because they do. Obnoxious amounts of money.
This thread wasn't about the money doctors make -- it's about their office hours. I don't think many doctors work as many hours as people who work two jobs just to survive, or many small business owners, or even migrant field workers (now they work long hours).
That's not always the case. I used to work for an orthopaedic surgeon. He made rounds and performed surgery at the hospital every morning. My 9 to 5 job ended at 7 or 8 or 9 in the evening. He felt responsible for all of his patients and wouldn't turn anyone away. I just loved those 12 hour days. Sometimes I had to remind myself that he was on the job before I even got out of bed in the morning.
Lots of people, like myself think investment bankers and hedge fund managers make too much money---- because they do. Obnoxious amounts of money.
This thread wasn't about the money doctors make -- it's about their office hours. I don't think many doctors work as many hours as people who work two jobs just to survive, or many small business owners, or even migrant field workers (now they work long hours).
Many doctors are small business owners.
What you do not seem to see is that they are working even when they are not seeing patients in the office. If they had office hours 12 hours per day, there would be no time to eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom.
YES! On all counts! I've never been able to find a doctor that provides treatment! All they do is say, "you're fine", "there's nothing wrong", "it's all in your head". Here in the SW they're more honest, they say, "I don't know how to fix that" (no matter what condition you present), and "we don't do that kind of work" (really?? Endocrinologists don't do endocrinology? Except for thyroid and diabetes, I'm told. That's all they do. They don't know how to treat any other endocrine issues). So they get paid by insurance for a 'consult" in which they basically turn the client away, and I have to try to figure out how to treat myself, by doing internet research, or just let the problem fester for years, or pay $400/hr. for a doc who doesn't accept insurance, but is really on the ball. I'm told this will only get worse when a system of universal insurance is in place. I don't know why. But one doc told me the medical education in the US is rigged. Pharma calls the shots, so doctors don't learn how to get to the root of health problems and resolve them, they only learn how to mask the symptoms with pharma.
It's a scary system, very dysfunctional.
Girl, PM me. We need to talk. I am going to through the same thing, and do not explain to no one on these boards. They say the same thing. It's all in your head! Also the system is rigged and control by big pharm and insurance. I have had to go on the internet myself to get myself functional. But there is hope, I work full time and did not think that would happen.
Thya don't just service patients at their offices either. Normqally they are at hospital eraly i morning then office ;perhaps surgery and have stop recheck patients in hosptial. often they are subject to call out to hospiutal at night often for ten hour surgeries. Its a life style of long hours.
I have recently started being a beginning caregiver (ie. he can still be alone during the day) to a close relative with brain damage/progressive memory loss. I need to drive him to all of his doctor's appointments and to see the doctors with him (as he frequently gets confused). Why do the doctors all seem to have hours like 9AM to 3PM? Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had at least one or two evenings a week or one Saturday a month where they see patients? ....
I lived in the U.S. until Jan. 2000, and my experience was that my doctors had hours until at least 8 p.m. I can't think of one who didn't.
After I moved to Europe, I found that doctors routinely had hours unti 9 p.m.
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Sometimes I had to remind myself that he was on the job before I even got out of bed in the morning.
