THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

Abstract

Since you were interested in some casual remarks I made concerning the dispersion of our medical training resources in this country, I am going to impose on your patience by further expanding the subject. Much has been said and written lately about the shortage of physicians and allied technical personnel. In spite of the fact that we have more physicians per thousand population than any other major country, we are constantly being told that we face a critical shortage of doctors and that something must be done about it. It is true that the demand of the general population for health services has vastly increased. Whether this increase is due to an intelligent understanding by more people of what good medicine can offer, or to overindulgence in the luxuries of medicine, may be open to question. The fact remains, however, that in spite of a constant increasing number of doctors per thousand, and greater productivity of the individual physician by reason of better transportation, improved mechanical aids, and an increased number of technical assistants, the load on medicine steadily increased. This load has been diminished in no way by dividing "Gaul" not into three parts, but into six. This alleged shortage of doctors and other health personnel is partly due to faulty distribution but it is also to a considerable extent an artificial creation brought about by unnecessary expansion of government medical services.