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| 11/18/2008 |
Survey: Primary Care Doctors Feel Job Pressures Are "Burdensome"
(Washington, DC) -- Primary care doctors bear the brunt of health care in the U.S. and they feel it too. A new survey from the Physicians Foundation finds half of the country's general practitioners are ready to cut back on their practice or take down their shingle altogether. Some 12-thousand GPs responded to a questionnaire mailed nationally, and 60-percent said they'd never recommend medicine as a career. One anonymous respondent wrote, quote, "The whole thing has spun out of control. I plan to retire early even though I still love seeing patients. The process has just become too burdensome."
The survey points to what experts have long said is a glaring flaw in the U.S. medical system. Doctors themselves feel there aren't enough in family practice and those that are feel woefully undertrained and over burdened. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they're working at full capacity or beyond. Some eleven-percent plan to retire, 13-percent plan to stop seeing patients and one-in-five said they plan to cut back on patient care. Nine out of ten survey respondents said the time they devote to non-clinical paperwork has increased in the last three years, with 63-percent admitting this translates into less time with patients. |
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