re: Why does it take so long to see a doctor now?

Bc drs don’t work like they used to either. They are constantly on vacation and many want to work only 3-4 days a week. They bitch about their pay but work half as much as the old docs did back in the day.

Dentists also refuse to work 5 days a week in most cases.

Here new walkin clinics are opening every month. It's unreall

Wild Health

Try scheduling an eye exam. shite is impossible if you’re not already a patient in the books it seems.

2 doctors quit a practice I use and was told appts were starting in DEC. Changing to a new place. That's crazy. Wasn't but a couple years ago you'd talk to a DRs and ask a question they immediately said I can't diagnose you without you coming into the office. It's the same sinus infection I had the last 4 years!!!!!!!!!! Nope we can't do that over the phone. Now, Zoom visit the choice for them.

You are waiting months to see a primary care physician?

You can get an appointment the same day with a bunch of them.

quote:

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one particular demographic

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Ding ding,we have a winner.

Drug reps can’t bring handouts anymore, so now you gotta just bang 6, 7, 8 of them a day. It takes time, but it’s important.








Very few young, motivated, go-getter types go into primary care. Primary care has been heavily incentivized since the ACA and reimbursements are up, but most primary care is now hospital/private equity owned. People bitch about wait times in the waiting room, so now a lot of folks would just have you wait at home instead of in the waiting room. The hospitals and equity groups use this to continue to show demand for primary care take some off the top. The reimbursement to the physician is up, so they’re happy. Anyone more than about 10 years into practice is saturated and unlikely to take new patients, whether employed or self-employed.


The only person suffering is the patient, and very few people actually care about them anymore.

From working in the field there seem to be a few major issues:

1. Residency spending by the govt (who funds all resident salaries more or less) has essentially been static since the 90s, so we should be training more docs but aren’t. I think congress may be addressing this.

2. People don’t want to practice in rural areas. Rural recruitment is very difficult and family medicine doctors are the only specialty that shows a consistent, genuine desire to work in these areas. Good luck getting a specialist without driving to a larger metro.

3. Healthcare kind of sucks to work in for everyone. It’s become an unforgiving meat grinder from techs to nurses to docs. Big corporations are buying up smaller practices that might be more flexible when it comes to working with patients and meeting their needs. These same corporations push midlevel providers (PA and NP) but don’t worry the doctor “supervises” (lol no they don’t they don’t have time but are contractually obligated) so you will be billed the doctor price for seeing someone with 1/20 the training.

4. More docs retiring early or going part time. Docs are relegated to ridiculous paperwork, documentation requirements, decreasing reimbursement, prior authorization hell, and a system that demands more while giving less, in addition to decreased autonomy (this one is massive imo). Patients (especially post Covid) seem angrier/more demanding and less appreciative. All of my older colleagues universally say that practicing medicine 20 years ago was light years better than the environment today. TL;DR: the current system is miserable and drives many to work less hours or retire early, decreasing access for patients.