Doctors on the whole is a confused lot.
For the car salesman, he sells cars. For insurance agents, they sell policies. For the hawkers, they sell food. For the pastors, their product is the Gospel and services rendered to the flock.
For the lawyers, they are smart. They sell their expertise on top of all the other practice related expenditure like photostating. The accountant are not bad too, they see their expert opinion plus all the other cost.
We doctors and many medically related professionals like nurses and pharmacists, we are sad. We offer our expert professional opinion for free and we try to earn our money by fighting with the pharmacies selling medicine, or fighting with beauticians doing aesthetics, worse still fighting with illegal drug peddlers selling sleeping and slimming pills. All in the name of charity. Seriously, no one appreciate us. In fact, they are highly suspicious of our motives.
It is time doctors must recognise the product we are offering. For most physicians and GPs, we are offering our expert opinion. So, we should charge according to the amount of time and effort put in when offering these opinions.
Our surgical friends should also see their surgical skills as a product on top of their expert opinion.
How about charity? Learn from our friends in the legal professionals. Let us run charity clinics and offer free services and or at cost for the truly poor. Engage our medical social worker friends, people from RC, etc to screen these needy patients.
These free clinics can be set up by the respective colleges or AM. And each one of us do de bono. Our legal eagles friends are smart, lets learn from them.
dear choon kit, i would be very keen to help in free clinics. i am in the business of anesthesia, intensive care, and pain. i think the painful part would be what i am talking about here, no? =) let me know..
ReplyDelete