TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Letters To The Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2007

Training Will Fall Short

Regarding "Physician Shortage Is Concerning" (Our Opinion, Nov. 11):

The problem is there, but the more training spots solution will fall far short.

Nearly half of the physicians I work with are foreign-trained.

I don't disparage their training - many are excellent. I merely point out that one doesn't necessarily stay where he's trained. My foreign-trained associates are here because it was better here at the time they relocated than where they trained. The onerous constitutional amendment you cited and the high cost of malpractice will still have doctors in the future choosing to settle elsewhere.

Regarding the specialty shortages, high malpractice cost will keep high-risk specialties from staying. For those in primary care, practice has become a burden of paperwork. One spends more time completing documents to either get reimbursed or to hopefully reduce liability than they do with patients.

There are more rewarding specialties and less-stressful locations in which to practice.

MARTIN BEATTIE

Tampa

A Simplistic Approach
Your suggestion that the best way to address the doctor shortage is for Congress to fund more training slots at Florida Hospitals is a rather simplistic approach. Medical students are not going into primary-care residencies for many reasons, including:

Long and demanding work hours, overwhelming paperwork, relatively low salaries compared to the specialists, high cost and complexity of running an office with rising overhead but fixed/lower reimbursement from HMOs and Medicare.

There is the high risk of being sued for poor outcomes and the inability to afford adequate malpractice insurance, low payment for cognitive services forces primary-care providers to see more patients in less time, resulting in provider and patient dissatisfaction and lower quality care.

Specialist's incomes are markedly higher than those of primary-care physicians, and medical students graduating with six-figure debts have to pay the bills. Most do not start working until age 30. Florida is the tort capital, and the risk/reward ratio has to change before med students decide to go into primary care in Florida.

DOUGLAS SASLOW

Tampa

The writer is a physician. The writer is a physician.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT