Robert Pearl, MD on doctors and the 5 stages of grief

"Physicians have had a rough century, so far. In addition to battling COVID-19, doctors have spent the past two decades fighting the health care industry’s fiercest players and losing, badly.

Power in the industry now belongs to health insurance companies, major drugmakers, and hospital tycoons. Physicians feel beaten up, burned out, and abused by a system so overrun with regulations that clinicians now spend more time filling out paperwork than helping patients.

Doctors long for the last century. Back then, they were paid well, revered by everyone, and largely left alone to practice as they please. As the war against COVID-19 winds down, doctors believe now is the time to demand a return to the glory days when physicians ruled medicine. To get there, doctors want more money, respect, and autonomy. They’ll get none of that because our nation can’t afford to give it to them."

Robert Pearl is a plastic surgeon and author of Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients. He can be reached on Twitter @RobertPearlMD.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "Doctors and the 5 stages of grief." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/07/doctors-and-the-5-stages-of-grief.html)