Consultant Emergency Physician
written by Dwight Burdick, MD, FACEP , October 18, 2012

Boy, I am ready to get raked over the coals for this one!

17 years ago, increasingly disSATISFIED with the deterioration of the quality of my professional life, working harder and longer, spending less time in patient care, increasingly stressed by bureaucratic, administrative, and legal oversight, and making more money than I could possibly spend, I left US medicine for an employed position in a universal national health service. Now, 17 years later and semi-retired I can reflect and compare.

My income dropped by 50%(+). The offset was 44hrs/week with limited and low risk call for peak overflow, a comprehensive and generous benefit package including more than ample Leave time, 70-90% actual patient care with limited administrative duties in peer review, education, credentialing, and such, all in a stratified physician designed, physician dominated system with Consultants like me supervising layers of junior doctors, residents, students, and ancillary staff. Definitely bureaucratic administrators to deal with, cranky Consultants to cajole for referrals, and patient complaints requiring response, but no litigation or professional liability concerns, and almost absolute professional security in what I have always strived for – evidence based, cost effective medicine.

You might guess which life has been better, professionally and personally, which life better suited my family. For my second country and its people, less money for the same service. Paid me half, and got twice as much patient care from a rested, relaxed, minimally stressed pit doc whose primary concern was optimal patient outcomes.