State societies warn of primary care shortages

By Tanya Albert Henry, AMNews correspondent. Dec. 22, 2008 in American Medical News Groups in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the latest to say more doctors are needed to meet patient needs, with primary care physicians in especially high demand. The state-level findings echo those in national November reports from The Physicians' Foundation and the American College of Physicians that project escalating primary care physician shortages. Fewer medical residents are choosing primary care specialties, contributing to the strain on patient access to primary care. Aging baby boomers are among the reasons work force experts project shortfalls to worsen in many specialties.