No end to physician problems:

-- The top five factors contributing to low morale were identified by the survey respondents as: low reimbursement, loss of autonomy, bureaucratic red tape, patient overload and loss of respect.

"I think that it is safe to say that no physician is optimistic about the future of medicine at this point," one participant wrote. Others seemed downright hopeless: "One thing that rarely gets mentioned is that, unlike other industries that are cyclical, the practice of medicine continually gets worse and worse, more intolerable, more onerous, with absolutely no hope or reason for any optimism either in the near or remote future."

The free-market is forcing doctors to extend office hours

Extended office hours are now the norm.

"Suddenly, faced with less compliant patients and unexpected competition, more and more doctors are doing the unthinkable: changing their hours to accommodate potential customers."