FORTY-EIGHT percent of the medical degrees awarded in 2010 went to women. Having been encouraged to believe they can – and should – do everything, many of these women hope to work part-time or flexible hours and have families. This unprecedented number of women doctors portends serious declines in patient care. Writing in The New York Times this weekend, a female doctor has the courage to state the obvious:  Women should not become doctors unless they are willing to make the same sacrifices as men. Karen. S. Sibert, an anesthesiologist, writes:

I have great respect for stay-at-home parents, and I think it’s fine if journalists or chefs or lawyers choose to work part time or quit their jobs altogether. But it’s different for doctors. Someone needs to take care of the patients.

The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that, 15 years from now, with the ranks of insured patients expanding, we will face a shortage of up to 150,000 doctors. As many doctors near retirement and aging baby boomers need more and more medical care, the shortage gets worse each year.

The decline in doctors’ pay is part of the problem. As we look at Medicare and Medicaid spending cuts, we need to be careful not to drive the best of the next generation away from medicine and into, say, investment banking.

But the productivity of the doctors currently practicing is also an important factor. About 30 percent of doctors in the United States are female, and women received 48 percent of the medical degrees awarded in 2010. But their productivity doesn’t match that of men. In a 2006 survey by the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, even full-time female doctors reported working on average 4.5 fewer hours each week and seeing fewer patients than their male colleagues. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 71 percent of female pediatricians take extended leave at some point — five times higher than the percentage for male pediatricians.

The most important point Sibert makes is that who becomes doctors is not simply a matter of personal choice. It’s a issue of public concern. She writes:

Medical education is supported by federal and state tax money both at the university level — student tuition doesn’t come close to covering the schools’ costs — and at the teaching hospitals where residents are trained. So if doctors aren’t making full use of their training, taxpayers are losing their investment. With a growing shortage of doctors in America, we can no longer afford to continue training doctors who don’t spend their careers in the full-time practice of medicine.

…. 

They must understand that medical education is a privilege, not an entitlement, and it confers a real moral obligation to serve.

I recently spoke with a college student who asked me if anesthesiology is a good field for women. She didn’t want to hear that my days are unpredictable because serious operations can take a long time and emergency surgery often needs to be done at night. What she really wanted to know was if my working life was consistent with her rosy vision of limited work hours and raising children. I doubt that she welcomed my parting advice: If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor.

Sibert’s piece no doubt will receive negative commentary. The idea that women should retreat from one of the most elite professions – and that their entry into it in large numbers has been positively wrong- is a challenge to the very foundations of feminist entitlement. What Sibert does not say is that some men who wanted to become doctors could not because women took their spots in medical schools.

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