Horatio Parker
Veteran Member
It's not so easy for a doctor to change their specialty. An internal medicine doctor cannot just up and say "I'm now a plastic surgeon!".
Upcoming doctors have the incentive to go into elective surgery.
I had a GP who was a surgeon. He said it was a strange combination of stress and boredom, plus it became hard to make money. Operations for things like ulcers are no longer done. IIRC, a surgical residency is five years.