A doctor shortage?

[hulahulaman]

Dr. Steve,

My dad was a cardiologist in private practice. After 30 years, he took an early retirement. Toward the end, he griped he was working more hours a week in his last five years than his first five years. This seems the norm. Most older doctors in his practice were unhappy and this was one the reasons I shunned medical school. I understand HMO's want high patient load and quick turnover as a matter of efficiency but are there also fewer doctors per patient than a few decades ago? Is there a doctor shortage? What's causing it and how can it be corrected?

Thanks.

[Dr Steve]

Dr. Steve,

My dad was a cardiologist in private practice. After 30 years, he took an early retirement. Toward the end, he griped he was working more hours a week in his last five years than his first five years. This seems the norm. Most older doctors in his practice were unhappy and this was one the reasons I shunned medical school. I understand HMO's want high patient load and quick turnover as a matter of efficiency but are there also fewer doctors per patient than a few decades ago? Is there a doctor shortage? What's causing it and how can it be corrected?

Thanks.


Absolutely. What happened is this:

Several years ago, the AMA and the deans of the nation's medical schools were worried that there would be a "doctor glut"...that they were graduating too many doctors and that salaries would drop and some docs wouldn't be able to find a job, etc. So they cut back on the number of medical students in each class to fix the problem.

Boy, were they wrong. The baby boomers are aging and living longer than ever and a lot of docs are going into new specialties rather than practicing "general" medicine, leaving a severe shortage of primary care doctors, especially in rural areas. Thankfully, there are a host of foreign medical students happy to come to the US to practice, and there are a ton of new Nurse Practitioners out there doing primary and specialty medicine as well.

The AMA and the medical schools have heard the message, though...medical school classes have been increased recently and we should see a lot more US-trained medical students hitting the market in 4-7 years from now.

If there are huge Medicare cuts over the next few years, however, it'll be hard to find people to fill those spots. Time will tell.

[WhistlePig]

I find every time I need to make an appointment with a specialist in my area I can't get an appointment for months! It's ridiculous if you have a semi-urgent problem and have been referred and they say "Ok, the next open appointment is 6 months from now..." This was especially disconcerting when I was pregnant for the first time and had a hard time finding an OBGYN that I could see before the baby was due!!

[STC-Dub]

Where I live there are no primary care physicians taking new patients.