The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.
Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000.
The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. These general practitioners, internists, family physicians and pediatricians will have a larger role under the new law, coordinating care for each patient.
The U.S. has 352,908 primary-care doctors now, and the college association estimates that 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. But the number of medical-school students entering family medicine fell more than a quarter between 2002 and 2007
My take: This is irresistable. If standard economics holds, doctors currently in the field will be able to raise their rates and the total cost of Obamacare will go up even faster and more than forecast.
Showing posts with label doctor shortage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctor shortage. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
UK has to fly in foreign doctors to treat patients
From Daily Mail
Foreign GPs who commute to Britain:
£100-an-hour Poles and Lithuanians
fly in for shifts our doctors won't do
"The huge extent to which the NHS needs foreign doctors to treat patients out of hours is revealed today.
A third of primary care trusts are flying in GPs from as far away as Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland because of a shortage of doctors in Britain willing to work in the evenings and at weekends.
The stand-ins earn up to £100 an hour, and one trust paid Polish and German doctors a total of £267,000 in a year, a Daily Mail investigation has found.
It raises fresh concerns that British patients are being treated by exhausted doctors without a perfect command of English.
Yesterday the Royal College of GPs and the General Medical Council called for a 'radical review' of out-of-hours care so that the NHS no longer has to rely on help from abroad.
The figures come months after an investigation was launched into the conduct of a German doctor after two patients died on his first shift in Britain.
Daniel Ubani had just three hours sleep."
Foreign GPs who commute to Britain:
£100-an-hour Poles and Lithuanians
fly in for shifts our doctors won't do
"The huge extent to which the NHS needs foreign doctors to treat patients out of hours is revealed today.
A third of primary care trusts are flying in GPs from as far away as Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland because of a shortage of doctors in Britain willing to work in the evenings and at weekends.
The stand-ins earn up to £100 an hour, and one trust paid Polish and German doctors a total of £267,000 in a year, a Daily Mail investigation has found.
It raises fresh concerns that British patients are being treated by exhausted doctors without a perfect command of English.
Yesterday the Royal College of GPs and the General Medical Council called for a 'radical review' of out-of-hours care so that the NHS no longer has to rely on help from abroad.
The figures come months after an investigation was launched into the conduct of a German doctor after two patients died on his first shift in Britain.
Daniel Ubani had just three hours sleep."
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