
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993                   TAG: 9304230467
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DOCTORS ARE NOT THE BAD GUYS

THIS IS in response to the April 8 letter to the editor entitled "Physicians need to practice restraint," in which the writer implies that surgeons intentionally hide their fees and that their prices are out of line.

I ask the writer this: When your sink is stopped up and you call the plumber, do you ask him what his fee will be or at least an estimate of what he will charge? When he charges you not only a fee to fix it but also for coming out to your house, do you balk at paying him? Why then would you not consider asking the same questions of a person who is going to operate on you?

When the surgeon took out the lump from your face, did he or she whip out a pair of scissors and lop it off, or was the surgery performed in a manner that not only caused the least amount of scarring to your face but also prevented the spread of what might have been a cancerous growth?

After you have answered these questions, please consider how much training it took that surgeon to learn how to do what he did to you. It takes anywhere from nine to 15 years after college, during which time he or she worked in excess of 14 to 20 hours a day.

If you had bled during the night following surgery, would that doctor have refused to meet you in the emergency room, no matter what time? And would there have been an extra fee because it was after hours and time and a half?

The hours a surgeon works are generally 7 a.m. to at least 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. - on an early night. Often this doctor doesn't get home at all. The next time you visit, ask your doctor what percentage of his practice is "pro bono" or for free? Ask how many of these "free" patients were seen in the emergency room at night when most people are comfortably asleep in bed?

It's time we stopped viewing our doctors as the bad guys and see them instead as men and women practicing a craft that keeps us all alive and well. SUSAN HILL ROANOKE

by CNB