My wife recently broke her femur completely through. Her condition was complicated by bone mets that had weakened the upper part of the bone. A local surgeon attempted to repair it in the usual way, with a femoral nailing procedure. Halfway through he gave up and admitted he didn't dare go any farther; he had already damaged part of her hip. We were referred to one of the major teaching hospitals in Philadelphia and my wife was transferred there on a Thursday. When told she might have to wait until Monday for surgery she started to get very upset, until the intern whom she was speaking with said, "You don't want a weekend surgeon doing this!" Fortunately they were able to get her in on Friday, with a top surgeon who had no trouble doing the procedure the local one had given up on. His comment to us was, "We tend to clean up a lot of garbage from the outlying areas."
So, yes, there are vastly different levels of professionalism, depending on the circumstances.
I am surprised the intern told you that.
Can you tell me which suburban hospital gave up on the surgery? I live on an outlying area (Abington).