5 Problems in the Medical Profession Today

There can be no higher calling, in my opinion, than to help one's fellow humans and to heal them. I tend to trust most doctors and I when I walk into someone's office for care, I don't usually feel apprehensive about their motives or competency.

When I was a child, I had the good fortune of having our family doctor live next door and he came over at times if one of us was ill.

I was recently shocked, however, when a massive medical betrayal occurred in my present city, with clinics being closed down because the doctors and medical staff were reusing syringes and other equipment intentionally, resulting in patients acquiring hepatitis, AIDS and other diseases.

Nevertheless, I maintain that most are heroes, and the flaws I'm pointing out do not apply to them. Also, I feel that medicine usually excels in the treatment of emergencies, and the trauma area of specialization is the best.

Here, however, are 5 points of concern:

Needless Operations

I am alarmed about thousands of needless operations performed every year, some of which harm or kill people. One example is reported by the Daily Mail:

"...Tonsillectomies have become common procedures in the West, with 45,000 in Britain every year.

But doctors are being far too hasty to use them to treat minor throat infections, claim researchers, and simply waiting see how a child's condition develops is often just as effective."

Cutting off the Wrong Limb, Removing the Wrong Organ or Giving Wrong Medications

We often hear of wrong limbs being cut off, wrong organs being removed, wrong medications being given and other forms of carelessness and treachery.

At the Southern Nevada Endoscopy Center and sister clinics, medical professionals were so "caring" that they reused medical equipment purposely, resulting in people acquiring life threatening diseases. This was because of an ambition for more money at the expense of people's lives.

What About the Ability to Pay?

A friend of mine recently had a doctor's office refuse to treat him because he couldn't pay at the time.

There is a Hippocratic Oath, which became changed and modified over time, and some doctors may choose not to adhere to it, at all. Whether or not a doctor recites the oath, ethics exist in the profession by default, and if a person does not care about people first, then he or she should not enter this line of work, in my opinion.

If a person is injured, it is against the law in many areas to not render aid or to help. Considering this, we should wonder about doctors who refuse to help people and are more concerned about money.

The Name of a Pill for the Name of a Condition

Doctors tend to be puppets of the drug companies and often prescribe a particular pill from a computer database, instead of making other recommendations such as lifestyle changes, diet, and so on. They tend to treat symptoms with drugs instead of addressing the causes of disease and curing the root problem.

Lack of Empathy

Elizabeth Redden, on insidehighered.com, indicates tomorrow's doctors will be less empathetic toward their patients than those of today, and there's a downward trend. She says, "The significant decrease in vicarious empathy is of concern, because empathy is crucial for a successful physician-patient relationship." She later continues, "Empathy is one of the most highly desirable professional traits that medical education should promote..."

I have had young people ask my opinion about entering medicine, and I always tell them they should go into the profession if they care about people first, and that should be the primary consideration.

SOURCE CITATIONS:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://www.insidehighered.com