I've been coming across many laments of lack of good family doctors. Increasingly, I've been seeing cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomies being done by GI surgeons and even hernioplasties being performed by GI surgeons or urologists. Perhaps patients see such surgeries by such specialized surgeons as some kind of 'upgrade' at a very small premium (of say 10-15% total treatment cost), because of bulk of the charges would pertain to hospital bed, OT charges, visiting charges, anesthetist charges, etc.
Likewise, even on the medical side there is too much reliance on specialists as against generalists, and as some of the doctors on these Docplexus fora point out, preventive aspects of diseases or indolent/chronic diseases get neglected. I would like to enlist two instances here of how 'over-specialization' can prove detrimental to patients (both seen in Mumbai). A nephrologist (very sound…
