This is already happening, with more and more primary care responsibilities being pushed to physician assistants and nurse practitioners. At your modern urgent care or "doc in a box" primary care clinic, you may never see the doctor, who mostly exists to lend legitimacy to the practice. Not to say that I don't appreciate the hard work that PAs and NPs do, and I think they are certainly qualified to handle most medical issues in their fields, just that the medical industry is trending towards a less personal experience run by lower paid workers and I can't imagine that leading to better health outcomes for the average person.
And I think that is just fine. There's a large amount of things you don't actually need to see a doctor for. Especially things like looking up your nose and prescribing a Z-pak.
Sure, but while "looking up your nose and prescribing a Z-pak" is sufficient for some medical interactions, if I don't actually need a Z-pak but the only medical staff I have access to is someone who shrugs and prescribes me one anyway because they only allotted 15 minutes for my appointment, then we have a problem. These medical solutions only really work as supplementary to, not in replacement of, more personal primary care providers and specialists.
