In a previous post (Physician Salaries on the Decline) I wrote about declining physician salaries and how that is bad for healthcare.
I recently found a post from a medical student in the U.K. The system is kind of different there. He talks about the salary a newly graduated doctor would make out of medical school. Here in the States, I’ve found some residency brochures that advertise paying their residents somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000 USD.
Anyways, the post talks about how the financial benefits of a career in medicine might not be enough to entice the “cream of the crop” into medicine. And, the author points out, wouldn’t you want the best and the brightest to be the ones taking care of you when you’re sick?
From the post:
Where would you want the brightest people in the country to work? Would you have them making you money as stockbrokers; defending you in court as lawyers; writing your next headline as journalists; or would you have them saving lives as doctors? Most people would rank their health as one of the most important aspects of their lives, but is medicine financially attractive enough to entice the cream of the crop? I am not sure. In financial terms medicine might not be the best choice for the bright young future of tomorrow.
The post is at sBMJ – Viewpoint: Deterred by the doctor’s salary?
