Without the White Coat
2007......challenges for the practicing physician
For the enduring and short-change medical doctor and physician, what will the year of the "pig" brings him/her. It is longer patient lines and overflowing admissions in medical institutions. It is getting the day go by to pay off for the clinic rentals and overhead expenses and not try to get the err of the taxman.
The man in a white coat with his stethoscope and diagnostic tools is in for a rough and hard times. Thus, will be looking in some pathways of career changes and that everlasting search for the greener pastures of life. With all the brunt of an exodus of medical professionals to the shores of the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, there are still a handful who stick it out. The general population, who failed to consider medical care as a priority and the decreasing number of students enrolling in medical schools and a number of medical schools closing down as well as the swelling population of sick and ill patients with only a handful physicians to care for them will render a state of "need" for the medical field. A difference sent more worst in the rural areas, thus most of the concentrations of practicing physicians are in the urban setting.
The dictum that the "Filipino" patient will just seek the medical advice and consult of his physician in a stage that he is already "critically morbid" or just holding to a thin string of life and on his last breath always holds true. The preventive aspect of medical care is now left behind since it is perceived as expensive and will be a last priority in his shopping list.
Professional jealousy will always be on the air. Each consultant always perceived that every resident that will come out from the training program as a threat and a competition to his medical practice.
The HMO will still and always dictate the physicians on how much he can take home and what can be reimbursed to him as promised 15 to 30 days after or never at all.(Remember: For those that will seek greener pastures in the medical field, I think they all got harvested with the dry season. For this, an alternative field of pasture is now on the minds of our young medical professionals. It may not be green but it can guarantee that the buck will always flow. May it be in the isolated plains of Australia to the hot and barren desert of the Middle East or to the boondocks of the US Appalachians region down the busy streets of Los Angeles, the green buck will always fall together with that perspiration and sweat. It is always the practicing physician that will be holding the bag. It maybe a no-cash out for the members, which is a convenient practice, but remember that on every patient that the HMO doctor sees he will be compensated for it, which will never hold true every time).
As a practicing doctor, it is always the welfare of the patient that tops our priority list. We all feel good when our patients get well though we are less compensated for it. The patient will always thinks that it is the physician’s obligation and duty to cure and treat him. On the other hand, it is the patient’s obligation not to pay his doctor.(Remember there are still a lot of freeloaders in this world who will always think that his/her physician does not need to eat. How about the kids that he have to send to school?)
We may call it gloomy and dark for the practicing physician but we can never give up on our medical system to work for our people. The Filipino physician will always take care of the "sick" Filipino but the community, at whole, will have to support the doctors in forms of better opportunities and compensations in order for them to survive. Let us put it this way, " a better and greener pasture " for the practicing physician.
I think for those who are in a hurry to accumulate all the wealth in this world to pay off their brand new possessions, "dahan-dahan lang basi madosmo kamo". Just remember: "ang pasyente man guihapon ang kalolo-oy".
This is a promising note for my dear "central" on its first graduates for the College of Medicine, an army of "Christian Doctors" that will always take care and poor patients of our country.