I had a striking conversation with one of our junior residents. What began as a casual chat unexpectedly turned into a discussion about something he called creating a false scarcity.

How the System Works

Every surgeon is allocated a fixed number of operating-theater lists each week. That allocation largely determines how long patients wait for surgery. When slots are few and demand is high, waiting times stretch from weeks into months.

To address urgent needs, hospitals offer an after-office-hours option. For a higher fee—often covered by insurance—a patient can have surgery within days. The extra cost makes sense: a second team of nurses, anesthetists, and support staff must stay late, and everyone involved is paid for their time.

This system itself isn’t wrong. Like business-class air travel, it simply provides a premium choice for those who can afford it, while freeing regular slots for subsidized patients.

Where Temptation Creeps In

The danger comes when surgeons create a false scarcity.

Imagine a true wait of three months. A surgeon, sensing a patient has insurance coverage, says six months instead. Shocked, the patient might choose the costlier after-hours route. The hospital earns more. The surgeon earns more. And the patient has no way to verify the original estimate.

It isn’t an institutional flaw—after-hours surgery serves a real need. The risk lies inside each surgeon’s heart: Will I counsel truthfully or yield to the lure of higher margins?

A Gospel Lens on Integrity

Here’s the sobering reality: God sees everything.

Even if a surgeon “gets away with it,” every word is laid bare before Him. None of us is untouched by temptation. To claim perfect purity would itself be a lie.

Yet there is hope. Jesus Christ has already paid for our failures. Because His righteousness covers us, we can face the truth without fear and choose honesty over gain. Each patient encounter becomes an opportunity to worship God, not money.

Choosing Whom to Serve

So the question for me—and for anyone in medicine or business—is simple but searching:

Will I worship the God of money, manipulating false scarcity to increase demand? Or will I worship the God who sees, counseling every patient with transparent love and integrity?

Remembering that Christ has covered me frees me to speak plainly about waiting times and to use my surgical gifts to serve, not to profit. That is the way of the gospel, and the only way to real peace.