Study: 61% of family physicians do not specialize in field <br><br> - Haaretz

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Last update - 04:28 24/09/2007

Study: 61% of family physicians do not specialize in field

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

Sixty-one percent of physicians working in family medicine are not specialists in the field, according to a report by the Health Ministry and the four health maintenance organizations.

The report also reveals that 25 percent of doctors working in pediatrics and 20 percent of those working in orthopedics have not specialized in those areas.

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octors who finish their medical studies and receive a license to practice general medicine can be very good at their jobs, but they have not specialized in [the area in which they are practicing]," said Gabi Ben-Nun, the Health Ministry's deputy director for economics and health insurance. "Some doctors are in mid-career; some are new immigrants who are not interested in specializing, which is a long process that takes about seven years."

The report, which offers a comprehensive examination of various issues relating to the medical services that the HMOs provide to the community, reveals that 14 percent of doctors working in the ear, nose and throat field are not specialists in that area. The same is true for 12 percent of doctors working in gynecology, nine percent in dermatology and five to eight percent of opthamologists, internists and surgeons.

The report also discloses that in 2003, 9,176 physicians were community practitioners, less than a third of all physicians in Israel.

New immigrants not recognized

The report notes that some new immigrant doctors may have specialized in the field in which they are working in their home countries, but are not recognized here.

"In any case, the people coming for treatment are not aware of the doctor's education level, despite the patient's right to know whether the doctor is a specialist or not," the report says. The report also reveals that there are fewer doctors in the periphery than in central Israel.

The number of doctors per 10,000 patients is 10.7 in the north, 12.3 in the south, 16 in Haifa and 15.9 in the center. Rates of illness and mortality are higher in the periphery, but it is difficult to attract medical personnel to live there, the report notes.

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04:28 Study: 61% of family physicians do not specialize in field