Plan B Forum

The doctor is disappearing in America.



And by most projections, it’s only going to get worse — the U.S. could lose as many as 1 million doctors by 2025, according to a Association of American Medical Colleges report.

Primary-care physicians will account for as much as one-third of that shortage, meaning the doctor you likely interact with most often is also becoming much more difficult to see.


Tasked with checkups and referring more complicated health problems to specialists, these doctors have the most consistent contact with a patient. But 65 million people live in what’s “essentially a primary-care desert,” said Phil Miller of the physician search firm Merritt Hawkins.

Without those doctors, our medical system is “putting out forest fires — just treating the patients when they get really sick,” said Dr. Richard Olds, the chief executive officer of the Caribbean medical school St. George’s University, who is attempting to use his institution’s resources to help alleviate the shortage.

Dr. Ramanathan Raju, CEO of public hospital system NYC Health + Hospitals, goes even further, saying the U.S. lacks a basic primary-care system. “I think we really killed primary care in this country,” said Raju. “It needs to be addressed yesterday.”

The primary-care gap is particularly acute in about one-third of states, which have only half or less of their primary-care needs being met. Connecticut is a standout among the group, at about 15%, with Missouri, at 30%; Rhode Island, at 33%; Alaska, with 35%; and North Dakota, at 37%, next on the list, according to government statistics.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americ ... 2016-04-01

the USA will find an influx of brilliant British doctors flooding into their hospitals

And by most projections, it’s only going to get worse — the U.S. could lose as many as 1 million doctors by 2025, according to a Association of American Medical Colleges report.

Total number of doctors of medicine in the U.S. 1,026,788
Total number of active doctors of medicine in the U.S. 826,001
Active doctors of medicine in patient care in the U.S. 784,633

Daisy wrote:That's alright if Jeremy Hunt gets his way the USA will find an influx of brilliant British doctors flooding into their hospitals in the next few years.

RayThom wrote:

Americans do not have better teeth than the English, new research suggests. Experts set out to challenge the idea – dating back more than a century – that the English have poor dental hygiene.

A team from the UK and the US examined data on thousands of people from the English Adult Dental Health Survey and the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They looked for examples of missing teeth, adults’ perceptions of their oral health, and the effect of poor teeth on daily life such as pain, difficulty eating, avoiding smiling and social effects. Levels of education and household income were also examined.

The study showed that the average number of missing teeth was significantly higher in the US (7.31) than in England (6.97), and that people were more likely to suffer poor dental health because of socioeconomic factors if they lived in the US.

“In conclusion, we have shown that the oral health of Americans is not better than the English, and there are consistently wider educational and income related oral health inequalities in the US compared with England,” said the researchers, who included academics from University College London.
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The study showed that the average number of missing teeth was significantly higher in the US (7.31) than in England (6.97),

52. Hawaii *********************** 6.50%

Long Run wrote:Sugar cane has a different impact than processed sugar on teeth and health in general.