--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "It's just a ride" <bill.hicks.all.a.r...@...> wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 4:14 PM, bob_brigante<no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > > > > My neighbor with a brain tumor got a visit from Apria's giant van yesterday, > > but I doubt if a doc was aboard -- you can still get a actual doctor house > > call in England, but that's pretty much a gone John here. > > > > http://www.apria.com/about_apria/1,2746,512,00.html > > In my part of the US nurse practitioners are becoming very popular. > And even those people are overkill. You really don't need a family > physician (4 year residency required) or general practitioner to > handle most problems. An EMT or medic would do. I've been treated > quite adequately by nurse practitioners where I live, at Gatwick > Airport when I took ill before a flight back to the US, and in > Boulder. > > IRRC nurse practitioners are becoming very popular in places like > Iowa, especially in the area of anesthesia. I needed day surgery a > few years ago and was kind of shocked when I was introduced to my > anesthetist, a nurse practitioner. But I've never received such care > and concern as I have from her. Whenever my blood oxygen saturation > dropped, she'd be at my side urging me to breathe and giving me some > Vicodin. I had a deviated septum repaired. These make it difficult > to breath and also hurt. > > Considering the care I get from my gp, I'd much rather walk into a > fire station and ask to be seen by an EMT. >
******* There's another level of skill in some states, like here in CA, where they have "physician assistant," with much more education than a nurse or nurse practitioner: http://www.pac.ca.gov/forms_pubs/what_is.shtml But it would clearly be better (and cheaper) if there were simply more people allowed to attend medical school, like in India -- but the doctors' union, the AMA, is not about to let "too many" doctors bring down their income. Actually, what is bringing down doctor income these days are HMOs, who have reduced physician wages through the HMOs' bargaining clout so that now dentists make more on average than physicians (though that is shaky now because in this recession many people are deferring elective dental procedures): "Dentists' incomes have grown faster than that of the typical American and the incomes of medical doctors. Formerly poor relations to physicians, American dentists in general practice made an average salary of $185,000 in 2004, the most recent data available. That figure is similar to what non-specialist doctors make, but dentists work far fewer hours. Dental surgeons and orthodontists average more than $300,000 annually. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11decay.html
