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How dermatology became the 'it' job in medicine

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47 points bookofjoe | 5 comments | 18 Nov 24 12:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.93s | source
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f6v ◴[18 Nov 24 14:06 UTC] No.42172363[source]▶
Tried getting an appointment in Denmark. “We don’t take any new patients”. A familiar story when trying to reach many specialists in European countries (Germany, Belgium). Except I doubt they’re getting 500k.
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jjice ◴[18 Nov 24 14:27 UTC] No.42172541[source]▶
Anecdotal, but I'm in the North East US and I called, and I'm not joking, nine primary care offices. Eight of them said they couldn't take anymore patients, and one said I could get an appointment six months later.

I hadn't needed to go to a primary care doctor in my adult life, but it was mind blowing that this was the case. Many friends of mine have had the same experience.

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1. cg5280 ◴[18 Nov 24 14:39 UTC] No.42172635[source]▶
Had the same thing in the Midwest about 8 months ago. Had to call a half dozen offices before one would take me and appointments had to be scheduled long in advance. I had not been to the doctor as an adult either and was quickly surprised by how frustrating healthcare is.
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2. zzbzq ◴[18 Nov 24 14:46 UTC] No.42172726[source]▶
Same, had to call around a lot to find primary care, and was being given multi-month waitlist estimates for seeing an ENT specialist. I've had more luck recently as I was able to get into see an ENT in less than 30 days. It's also crazy how much everyone tries to upsell you. It' hard to tell what tests or procedures I really need.
3. nerdponx ◴[18 Nov 24 15:01 UTC] No.42172899[source]▶
This is new since Covid era. You used to be able to get an appointment for a physical just a few weeks out, and it was easy to find a new doctor if you needed to.
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4. Projectiboga ◴[18 Nov 24 18:39 UTC] No.42175459[source]▶
This has been developing for a very long time. The two major medical school systems, MDs and DOs have kept supply of medical school graduates below the demand. This has kept the market rate for fees up but has created market inefficiencies. There is an under supply of general practice doctors. And it will be hard to reverse as the internships and residencies are usually in hospitals and large medical centers and there is little room to expand the incoming DR supply.
5. HeyLaughingBoy ◴[18 Nov 24 21:44 UTC] No.42177441[source]▶
It regionally-dependent though. On average, if we need to see a doctor, we can get an appointment in a day or two. For a routine physical, it might be two weeks, three at most.