Letter: Doctor shortage will grow worse
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Doctor shortage
will grow worse
Newsday's article on the increasing physician shortages in New York State should be cause for alarm ["Dire view of health care in NY," News, Jan. 26]. The trends are ominous.
In its 2008 report, the Hospital Association of New York State raised concern when shortages caused reductions in service at 24 percent of hospitals and gaps in emergency room coverage at 45 percent. These numbers have climbed to 34 percent and 66 percent, respectively, and there is no reason to believe that the situation will improve.
While the U.S. population has grown by more than 15 percent since 1996, federal restrictions on residency training have curtailed growth in the numbers of physicians being trained nationally. All the while, the physician workforce is aging, and more young physicians are women who practice less than full time.
We are not training enough physicians to replace the losses, and certainly not enough for the many additional patients who will be covered under health care reform, nor for the many new treatments that are discovered and desired.
It takes a decade to train a physician. The time to increase supply is not when it has reached crisis proportions. The time is now.
Dr. Richard A. Cooper, Old Westbury
Editor's note: The writer is the director of the Center for the Future of the Healthcare Workforce at the New York Institute of Technology.
