Shortage of Logic, Not Doctors

In news to absolutely no one with an iota of common sense, the purported physician shortage isn’t actually one of numbers, but rather a problem of distribution. Per this article by Lenny Bernstein in the Washington Post: [C]ritics of doctor shortage projections have argued for years that the problem is actually poor distribution of physicians, with too many clustered in urban and affluent areas and too few in poor and rural areas. Doctors prefer to live in affluent urban areas instead of rural poor ones. This is a surprise…why? Doctors are people. There are more people in urban and suburban areas than in rural ones. It’s, you know, part of the DEFINITION. Therefore there are going to be more doctors where there are more people. Sure, there are doctors who love the rural lifestyle. Hats off to them. However apparently there aren’t enough of them. Then again, rural areas, by DEFINITION, have relatively few people scattered over a wide area. In order for doctors and patients to get together, someone’s gonna have to travel. (Yes yes yes, there’s always telemedicine. Doesn’t help much when you need an actual procedure like surgery, or help delivering a baby. No matter how you cut it, there are times when you and your doctor need to be in physical contact.) So obviously there are going to be more doctors where there are more people. But why might they cluster in affluent areas? Contrary to popular belief, lots of us feel strongly that ever...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs