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How dermatology became the 'it' job in medicine

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47 points bookofjoe | 1 comments | 18 Nov 24 12:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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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nerdponx ◴[18 Nov 24 15:00 UTC] No.42172885[source]▶
Primary care has the opposite problem right now. Practices are closing faster than new ones are opening, and doctors are leaving the profession faster than new doctors are joining. There is an actual shortage of primary care docs.
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1. otoburb ◴[18 Nov 24 19:10 UTC] No.42175792[source]▶
Given the rise of Physican Assistants and Nurse Practitioners and their expanding scope of (even independent) practice across various states, specifically to address this growing shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs), it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that fewer potential physicians choose family medicine as that's the first specialty that seems most likely to be addressed by PAs and NPs.