reply on: The darker side of being a doctor \ stacker news ~tech

192 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 13 Apr \ on: The darker side of being a doctor tech

Absent this article, points (1) and (2) require knowing a doctor to fully appreciate. But the last point is visible to me (and probably anyone) as a progressively infrequent patient:

I am realising more and more that what brings me greatest distress is the relentless administrative pressure which take away the meaningful clinical engagement I have with my patients. And I wonder if this is what many young doctors are experiencing as well. Medicine used to be a meaningful pursuit. Now it has become a tiresome industry. The joy, purpose and meaning of medicine has been codified, sterilised, protocolised, industrialised and regimented. Doctors are caught in a web of business, no longer a noble vocation. The altruism of young doctors have been replaced by the shackles of efficiency, productivity and key performance indicators.

Going to the doctor these days feels like visiting a used car dealership. My guard is up calculating all the potential conflicts, ready to say "no" as fast as I might need to. At high mental frequency I'm inoculating myself against the guilt trip of not seeking increasing levels of care. I wonder how much of this is an over-modernization of medicine, a scramble to keep up with change, and how much of this results from quasi-controlled medical care and prices squeezing the competition and profitability out of medicine.