Posted on 04/12/2007 2:14:46 AM PDT by Stoat
LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of doctors questioned in a poll said morale within the profession is "poor" or "terrible", blaming government targets and reforms for the downbeat atmosphere.
A total of 54 percent of the 1,442 online survey respondents said morale within the profession was at a low, with more than two-thirds saying it had worsened during the past year.
Just 2 percent said morale was "excellent" in the survey carried out by the magazine "Hospital Doctor".
Nearly 70 percent said they would not recommend a career in medicine to friends or relatives.
Factors behind the low morale included changing workloads and government moves to centralise hospitals.
"Cost-cutting turn-around programmes have been disastrous for morale," said one respondent.
"Staff have been turned against each other."
Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the British Medical Association's Consultants' Committee, said a medical workforce that "feels so downbeat is not good news for the NHS or patients".
"The result of this survey shows how demoralised so many doctors are feeling and how they believe constant government reforms and targets are taking them further away from their initial vocation -- to treat patients."
The magazine quoted Stephen Campion, chief executive of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, as saying: "Traditionally, many doctors have followed in their parents' footsteps and increasingly we are hearing doctors saying they wished they hadn't recommended a career in medicine to their children.
"This is indicative of the extreme frustration and low morale hospital doctors are feeling."
Wow! Thank you very much for posting! VERY depressing and very informative. Particularly striking to me were the responses to
6. Have you ever considered leaving the practice of medicine as a result of morale problems?
(59.7% YES)
and
10. Do you know of any physicians who have left the practice of medicine as a result of morale problems?
(69.9% YES)
These numbers appear very close to numbers relating to similar sentiments cited in the UK NHS poll.
Having grown-up with a pediatric physician as the head of household, she would not recommend the medical field to any family members. Mostly based on the red tape associated with the health care industry.
Red tape and the malpractice litigation culture and insurance issues have been the bane of many physicians I have known or worked with. Here in Washington State, the medical malpractice insurance issues are so bad that OBGYN Docs and Neurosurgeons in particular have been moving out of the state in droves. It's very sad and is impacting the availability of certain types of care here.
Sadly, some of the numbers and sentiments cited in the page kindly linked by rainbow sprinkles at post # 4 here seem awfully close to similar items cited in the UK poll.
There are a lot of great Muslim doctors... so I guess the Anglos in Britain should just close up shop and give the country to Pakistan.
Normally I would concur, which I why I don't make a habit of posting poll results here. However, in this case the respondents were specifically targeted, and it was a 'closed poll' by an industry journal that requires special user logins. It wasn't a poll that was accessible to the general public.
Sadly, many Docs in the USA are feeling similarly disenchanted by the red tape and litigious culture here. Please see the poll of American Docs kindly linked by rainbow sprinkles at post # 4.
Thank you :-)
They will graduate from med school, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, limited reimbursement for services rendered, buried in government required paper work, and mounting malpractice insurance premiums.
Such as waste of great talent. And such a deprivation not only to patients but to the doctors themselves who by and large love people and helping them.
Practicing medicine provides some of the most uplifting feelings that are possible in all of the range of human experience.
Being a military retiree, I'm in a sort of socialist health care system. Last time I visited my doc she sounded very discouraged. The military docs are expected to not only treat their heavy workload of patients (it's usually a 3-4 week waiting list to get in there), but they also have to deal with deployments. On top of that they are charged with managing a branch or squadron of dozens, or hundreds, of subordinates, and that is a tremendous amount of paperwork to deal with. "Do more with less" is the bye word. There is a breaking point.
It's almost as if the bureaucrats by their actions are pushing the ingnant sheeple toward the breaking point.
Solution: socialized medicine, of course.
The cure will be worse than the disease, but the sheeple will be coerced into it by desperation.
I remain hopeful that our dear British Friends can correct the problems in their country just as I am hopeful that we can address the unique problems here in the USA. If we allow Western culture to be lost, it will truly be a sin against God, as we embody the greatest achievements of all of mankind's efforts and designs. Allowing this great shining jewel to become so corrupted that it is overrun by the barbarian hordes would be a most egregious insult to All Things.
"A handful of physicians are finding relief by turning to so-called boutique, or concierge, practices, typically charging an annual fee to cover preventive services not covered by Medicare."
We are coming to the time when we will have to pay extra for more than our "17 minutes" of a doc's attention. Sad.
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