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There are some truth to Spence’s claim that becoming a doctor depends on opportunity and class.1 Being a pharmacy student in the past, I remember several of my classmates planned to apply to medical school after their pharmacy degrees. Many eventually gave up due to financial and family reasons. Some were deterred due to the unfavourable length of postgraduate medical training required. Many of my classmates have the academic potentials to become competent physicians. I, despite not belonging to the brightest pharmacy students, went against the odds to apply to medical school. I appreciate being eventually selected to the University of Birmingham medical school,2 but that put me in a financial strain. I exhausted my government student loan support due to having completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees prior to medicine. I was fortunate to have saved enough money in my pharmacy career to support my medical education. In agreement with Spence, I concur that becoming a doctor requires perseverance and opportunity, but not solely academic merit.
However, I have reservations about Spence’s claim that advanced practitioners with the right training can do all the tasks of physicians – it depends on what he means by “right training.” As an ex-pharmacist myself, I question whether pharmacy training of physical examination requires better standardization.3 Although I advocate physicians d...Show MoreCompeting Interests: I have been paid for working as physician and pharmacist, but not for writing this letter.