Kalistan

[Doc]

Empress Announces program to provide 700 Rural Physicians
Financial Incentives will be provided to those who take jobs in rural clinics
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
January 7, 5705


Her Imperial Majesty announces legislative priorities for the year in National Assembly

Her Imperial Majesty made her annual announcement to the National Assembly earlier this week. In her 25 minute speech to the Chamber of Deputies, she announced that the centerpiece of her efforts this year will be to found a new program in Kalistan aimed at providing financial and other material incentives for general practitioners to move to and practice in Kalistan's Rural zones.

"We wish to build upon the success of our Infrastructure project by encouraging our doctors, especially our GPs to move out into the Countyside to serve the people who live in these relatively lightly populated regions," announced Her Imperial Majesty. "We had a very ambitious initiative to get roads out to people to allow them access to our services, but this will double that effort by moving doctors to the countryside to serve the people closer to their home." She described her new program as The Rural Medical Corps, and said all four Kalistani Duchies and the Grand Duchy of Ananto will benefit.

Her Imperial Majesty described the public/private system of medicine in Kalistan as one that provides incentives to doctors to avoid employment in the public system while opening their own practices in the private sector. "Many physicians are able to do this because they call themselves elective specialists, which falls under the private system. They then turn around and see patients for general medical issues, and rarely actually perform the elective specialist services they claim to offer. This robs to people of their rights to medicine, and places individual need for quality medical care at the mercy of an individual's egoistic financial interests." To combat this long standing practice, Her Imperial Majesty said that over the next year, Kalistan will institute a new system of licensure. "Those who claim to be specialists will only be allowed to perform their specialty, and will be inspected annually. They may continue to charge their fees for offering their elective services, but will be disallowed to charge for general medicine, preventative medicine, and palliative care."

Her Imperial Majesty said she met with stakeholders in the private sector medical system, who advocated to leave the system as it is. "We listened very patiently to their concerns, but at the end of the day, we were forced, by our ethics to side with our people whose needs are not being met by the lack of general practitioners in the public sector, and who may not be able to afford service in the elective private sector. Hardest hit of all are rural populations who may go more than a year without ever seeing a doctor when they need to see one because going into the cities and larger towns is too difficult. Rural Emergency services are most seriously impacted by this profiteering in the private sector, and so while we did admit that their prosperity as a sector would certainly be affected, our duty is to see that the people as a whole have access to their birthrights as citizens of this nation, even if it comes at the expense of doctors who want to be able to charge whatever they like for services they should be offering pro bono."

Her Imperial Majesty expects that this licensing policy will drive thousands of doctors out of private practice and back into the public sector, "where they will not expect to get rich, but will at least have a salary commensurate with all other public employees that is more than adequate for our public employees in other fields." With this expected influx of doctors back into the public system, the Empress believes the new Rural Medical Corps will be able to draw volunteers. "We intend to offer increased monetary incentives for those who volunteer to serve in the Rural Medical Corps, and other material incentives such as a home for the Doctor and their family, as well as their own clinic and NSP corpsmen and women as staff for the Rural clinics. We would ideally like to see four new rural clinics in each county which will be centered near rural populations as much as possible. The living will be more rustic, but hopefully these incentives can attract enough doctors and nurses at the Rural Clinics to provide not only routine medical and dental services, but also preventative medicine, nutrition services, emergency room services and laboratory facilities."

Her Imperial Majesty also said she would like to see some doctors retrain in epidemiology. "We are sure that all doctors will tell you horror stories about pandemics of old. We have been fortunate to avoid major pandemics, outside of the common cold and seasonal influenza. But having staff in place that understands how contagious diseases spread and can investigate pandemics when they are brand new will help us avoid the sort of crippling national pandemics that we have heard these stories about." The epidemiologist staff will also advise local and county governments on vaccinations, both as widespread preventative measures, but also as new diseases appear, measures to protect the nation against their spread.

"Overall, it is our intention to fully and fundamentally transform the public/private medical sector that has gotten away from its core principles of providing high quality, universal service to the citizens of Kalistan. Profit has creeped into our institution and has predictably corrupted what it has touched, and so it is incumbent upon government to bend the society back to the correct orientation."

Several people in Kaliburg were polled after the speech to find out their opinion. Overwhelmingly, the population of the Capital expressed concern more than support or rejection of the Empress' rural clinic models. Most were concerned that their doctor would be taken from them by these new policies. "I have a long established relationship with my physician, and it seems like this program, if my doctor was forbidden to practice general medicine, would result in me losing this physician I have grown to trust and who knows me and my history like her own," said Janet Huron of Kaliburg.

When asked if her doctor was a specialist, Huron said "Yes, she is an endocrinologist, but she is also primarily a physician. She charges money, and what we could really use more than taking our doctor away is an insurance program to help us offset the cost a bit, but I don't want my doctor taken away and sent out to some hamlet out in Green County somewhere." Asked if she has ever seen her doctor for endocrinology, Huron admitted, "Well, no, but I want to know if I did ever need an endocrinologist, I would be able to go to her for that too."

Most other respondents in Kaliburg echoed Huron's concerns. Some asked why, if they wanted to pay private doctors, what business is it of the state, while others said they understood the need for more doctors in the counties, but also didn't think it was fair that they personally should have to lose their doctors when the government could just as easily hire new doctors to send out to the country.

The New Rural Medical Corps will run a two year pilot study in communities across the nation, and then eventually wants to see the Rural Medical Corps expanded to include as many as 700 new rural physicians and more than 1300 new rural nurses and PAs. The funding and oversight for the program will go through Her Imperial Majesty's Ministry for Health and Social Services.

@TheRepublic