Always hear of athletes based in UK or US for example travelling to Spain or other countries to get surgery.
In: Other
Doctors are like school teachers. All of them have completed certain training and testing to ensure they are adequately qualified. Nevertheless, some of them are *much* better than others. Also, you may just personally get along with some more than others.
There are many procedures that are simply not legal in certain countries. There’s a reason all of the pro athletes in the US go south to get patched up after they get injured. They juice em up with the good stuff. There’s also the fact that countries with “free” healthcare often have shit healthcare systems and long wait times AND you don’t get to pick the best doctors, you get who you get – those are all easily avoided by being rich and going somewhere to see the best doctor without waiting 5 years.
some forms of medicine are only legal outside of the U.S. sometimes it’s for a good reason, but only sometimes.
some forms of medicine are only legal outside of the U.S. sometimes it’s for a good reason, but only sometimes.
Another thing to consider is the overarching bodies that oversee the practice of medicine and techniques/medicines administered.
For example, Bupropion, is licensed as an antidepressant in the USA by the FDA but is not by the NHS (overarching MHRA I believe?) so if for example certain devices are involved too which comes under the same hat which aren’t FDA approved and that’s the hot new treatment, it won’t be happening in the US or UK.
In terms of the USA too, the costs for surgeries when you factor in anesthesia, endoscopic machinery, hospital monitoring without insurance, the lay athlete (excluding the upper tier earners) can’t really afford it. In terms of the UK, the system is not geared towards private practice so you are very limited in terms of physicians and locations.
I’m sure there are a multitude of other factors such as desiring specific techniques, niche injuries amongst other things but Olympic athletes often do earn peanuts and do have to weigh up the economic choices when considering surgery.
Medical school and residency only teach you the basics to treat the most common diseases. The more cutting edge or obscure knowledge in a field takes years of specialty education, self directed learning, keeping up with latest developments, and connections to know about. Even then some doctors have more experience, better clinical judgment, are more perceptive, have better bedside manner, etc, that make them preferable to others.
My wife was having a shoulder problem. The Orthopedist (muscle skeleton doctor) she went to go see diagnosed the issue and said she needed surgery and the recovery time would be an entire year including physical therapy.
My wife googles and finds out there’s a less invasive procedure with a recovery of 2-4 weeks. She mentions it to her doctor. He says “I’ve heard of that, but don’t perform it and don’t know anyone that does”
I hop on the internet, find the best orthopedist in our large city, and call and ask if he performs this procedure. “Yes, if he thinks it’s the right course of action.” Is what the nurse says.
——————————
Point is, my wife “next-leveled” her doctor and reduced recovery time from A YEAR to 4 weeks just by shopping doctors in our same city. Imagine doing that when you’re rich and can travel the world.
No, not at all, just like any other profession there are those who are better than others. And there are those who have more practice.
If I’m a baseball pitcher and I tear a ligament in my elbow, I want to guy who’s already done 500 similar surgeries and has seen most of those athletes resume their careers than some other doctor who has watched the other surgeon on YouTube and ready a few papers on his technique, but never actually operated on that ligament to repair a multi-million dollar pitching arm.
Latest Answers