Did I know doctors who were "bad actors" or less competent than they should have been. Yes, but they were very much the minority.
During my career, because what I did was quite specialized and often related to emergent trauma, my on-call schedule up to the day I retired was heavier than residents half my age were allowed (one reason I retired when I did because I could not cut down on call). I also spent decades as a reserve surgeon including senior staff positions and combat deployment doing combat surgery. Not to brag on myself, but during my entire career start to finish no patient ever had to skip surgery because they could not afford it - their fee was reduced to minimal or nothing if the circumstances warranted it, which basically meant the reduction came out of my own pocket. Yes, I made a very good living, however had I gone in to other endeavors like relatives and others I knew I would have made a good deal more money with a great deal less disruption in my life - getting up at all hours, missing many childrens events due to professional conflicts or emergencies, exposure to all sorts of diseases including HIV (lots of blood in surgery). I say all this because the picture painted by one poster is distorted - and btw if those folks were so bad, did any of the "good" non-MDs ever report them - I personally had some MDs restricted in surgical access.
However, in terms of the original OP - even if you took someone with the soul of Mother Theresa, the brains of Einstein, and the hand eye coordination and skills of a gold medal athlete, there is no way in the world such a person could be ready to be an independent surgeon at 18. Final word.
Over the years, my view of the medical profession has grown more and more jaundiced; while not privy to the detail info you have and certainly without a medical background of my own, I still can't help but think that many (not all) doctors are frauds...my own primary physician is pretty suspect in my eyes. But, even without my fears and your beliefs, there is NO way I can get behind the idea that surgeons are organic plumbers, ready to cut, cut, cut as soon as they get their A.S.S. degree from Intercourse Community College. This sounds too much like a hospital administrator trying to decrease surgeon pay in order to increase, oh, I don't know, maybe hospital administrator pay...