Opinion

In-store clinics hurt primary care

LETTER — Posted Oct. 2, 2006

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Regarding "On-call goes retail" (Article, Sept. 11): The fact that the apparent popularity of these "clinics" is in part due to "consumer-driven care" is a travesty. Patients should turn to their doctors for advice. We are the ones who went to medical school, remember?

Supervising physicians and the businesses that employ them must stop patronizing the public, especially the medical community, and be honest. They are doing what they do solely for the money. Any success they have will be at the expense of primary care as a whole and their colleagues who are trying to survive by doing the right thing: being our patient's doctor when they need us, and not only when it's convenient for us.

G. Michael Summer, MD, Lewisville, N.C.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/10/02/edlt1002.htm.

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