Have you ever felt like your trip to the doctor was more like standing on a conveyor belt than being truly cared for?
In and out, numbers checked, boxes ticked, a prescription handed over — and that’s it.
This is what I call conveyor belt medicine. And it’s a growing problem.
What is conveyor belt medicine?
Conveyor belt medicine happens when the system is so focused on speed, efficiency, and throughput that the patient becomes just another unit to be processed.
It’s medicine reduced to flowcharts, protocols, and targets.
Symptoms become data points. Doctors become operators. And patients — people with stories, fears, and lives — risk being treated like items on a production line.
The organ-by-organ conveyor belts:
And it doesn’t stop there.
On the cardiology conveyor belt, we look at your heart. When we’re done, we pass you on to the gastroenterology conveyor belt for your stomach, and then perhaps to the neurology conveyor belt for your brain.
Each speciality focuses on its part — but rarely does anyone step back and look at you as a whole.
The patient becomes fragmented into organ systems, when what they really need is joined-up, holistic care.
Why it’s happening:
Why has this happened?
- Rising demand, shrinking resources.
- Pressure to see more patients in less time.
- Endless guidelines and tick-boxes.
And while these are meant to ensure safety, they can squeeze out the very thing patients value most — being heard, being understood, being treated as an individual.
What gets lost
On a conveyor belt, nuance gets lost.
- The patient who says, ‘My symptoms don’t fit the textbook,’ is told they’re anxious.
- The person with borderline test results but real suffering is told, ‘You’re normal.’
- The elderly patient with multiple conditions is squeezed into one guideline at a time, with nobody looking at the whole picture.
The human story gets left behind.
The alternative: relational medicine
But medicine isn’t meant to be a factory. It’s meant to be a relationship.
The real healing comes not just from pills or procedures, but from listening, understanding, and tailoring care to the person in front of you.
A single extra minute to ask: ‘What matters most to you?’ can transform a consultation.
That’s not inefficiency. That’s the essence of medicine.
Closing reflections:
Conveyor belts are perfect for producing cars and appliances. But people aren’t machines.
Every patient deserves more than a quick fix and a ticked box. They deserve care that sees them, hears them, and treats them as whole human beings.
And perhaps the future of medicine depends not on moving faster — but on slowing down enough to see the bigger picture.
Here is a video I have done on this subject:
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