A study shows that female doctors are better than male doctors, but get less pay. Researchers looked at three million medical records. The percentages of readmissions (people who had to stay in hospital a second time) and mortality (deaths) were lower if the doctor was female. Mortality rates were 15.02 per cent and readmission rates were 11.07 per cent for female doctors. They were 15.57 per cent and 11.49 per cent for male doctors.
Researchers did not say why women gave better care. Dr. Ashish Jha said "approximately 32,000 fewer patients would die" in the USA each year if male doctors did as well as female doctors. He also said it was wrong that male doctors got paid more than female doctors, because women were better at their jobs. Dr Jha said: "We need to understand why these differences exist," so female and male doctors work equally well and get the same pay.
