Compensate

On a recent occasion, I was summoned by the man from Pluto to attend a dinner meeting with a few very senior doctors. One of the topics that we discussed was how to improve the teaching on medical ethics and professionalism.

(I must say the topic is head-to-toe boring and, given my well known negative view on this subject, I always have the difficulty to understand why I am asked to teach medical ethics. Em... after all, David Hume was often asked to talk about theology, and George Orwell communism.)

I shall not tell you what we actually talked about that evening. As expected, there was no conclusion. Nonetheless, DL, the president of the Academy, did make a succinct observation:

"You know, for multiple reasons we have lost the glamorous halo on our head, and the status of a doctor has come down dramatically. As a result, we could only enjoy the satisfaction of monetary gain. Since the salary in the public hospital is way below private practice and the working environment is hell, young doctors just bite the bullet and endure the training. As long as that objective is accomplished, and as soon as they see little hope of promotion, they will move to the private market. At this moment, since they have lost so much time as compared to their classmates who study finance and make big money, they will have to compensate by over-charging their patients - and sometimes by doing unnecessary procedures."