Has Britain's medical system reached a 'breaking point'? Is the US system far behind?
It's dangerously close, reports the Telegraph.
Financial pressures may mean junior doctors are not given training posts within the NHS and the overall number of places at medical school could drop, a report has said.And with the passage of Obamacare, things aren't looking much brighter for US medicine, either.
This is despite extra burdens on the health service, including European rules limiting doctors' hours, more hospital admissions and people living longer than ever before, according to the study from the UK Royal Colleges of Physicians (RCP).
Those specialties dedicated to looking after very ill people are facing particular strain, it said.
Dr Andrew Goddard, RCP director of medical workforce, said the combination of factors was 'adding further stress to a system which may reach breaking point within the next few years'.
A new survey finds that 40 percent (40 percent!) of current physicians will retire as Obamacare is phased in. Via Investor's Business Daily:
Now a Merritt Hawkins survey of 2,379 doctors for the Physicians Foundation completed in August has vindicated our poll. It found that 40% of doctors said they would "retire, seek a nonclinical job in health care, or seek a job or business unrelated to health care" over the next three years as the overhaul is phased in.Is there a waiver for that?
Of those who said they planned to retire, 28% are 55 or younger and nearly half (49%) are 60 or younger.
A larger portion (74%) said they plan to make "one or more significant changes in their practices in the next one to three years, a time when many provisions of health reform will be phased in."
In addition to retirement, and finding nonclinical jobs elsewhere, those changes include working part time, closing practices to new patients, employment at a hospital, cutting back on the number of patients and switching to a cash or concierge practice.
