| | Survey reveals US family doctors face virtual extinction
 A survey of US primary care physicians released Tuesday reveals that family doctors could be facing a virtual extinction due to "frustration" over red tape.
"A U.S. shortage of 35,000 to 40,000 primary care physicians by 2025 was predicted at last week's American Medical Association annual meeting," CNN reports.
According to the Physicians' Foundation, "widespread frustration and concern among primary care physicians nationwide...could lead to a dramatic decrease in practicing doctors in the near future. The resulting findings show the possibility of significantly decreased access for Americans in the years ahead, as many doctors are forced to reduce the number of patients they see or quit the practice of medicine outright."
"An overwhelming majority – 78 percent – of physicians believe that there is an existing shortage of primary care doctors in the United States today," the foundation notes. "Additionally, nearly half of them – 49 percent, or more than 150,000 practicing doctors– say that over the next three years they plan to reduce the number of patients they see or stop practicing entirely."
Lou Goodman, PhD, President, The Physicians’ Foundation observes, "Going into this project we generally knew about the shortage of physicians; what we didn’t know is how much worse it could get over the next few years. The bottom line is that the person you’ve known as your family doctor could be getting ready to disappear – and there might not be a replacement."
Excerpts from CNN report:
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In the survey, the foundation sent questionnaires to more than 270,000 primary care doctors and more than 50,000 specialists nationwide.
Of the 12,000 respondents, 49 percent said they'd consider leaving medicine. Many said they are overwhelmed with their practices, not because they have too many patients, but because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.
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And as Ray mentioned, med school students are shying away from family medicine. In a survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September, only 2 percent of current medical students plan to take up primary care. That's because these students are wary of the same complaints that are causing existing doctors to flee primary care: hectic clinics, burdensome paperwork and systems that do a poor job of managing patients with chronic illness.
So what to do? Physicians don't have a lot of answers. But doctors say it's time to make some changes, not only in the health care field but also with the insurance industry. And they're looking to the new administration for guidance.
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FULL CNN STORY AT THIS LINK
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