By Tom Kisken
Out of a group of more than 750 doctors in Ventura County, half will turn 55 or older before the end of the year, according to a local medical association. One of three will turn 60 or older.
The doctors aren’t growing crow’s feet alone. About half of the registered nurses in Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties were 50 and older in 2008, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing. About 18 percent of the nurses were in their 60s, more than those who were 34 and younger.
The graying numbers don’t surprise Dr. Gary Proffett, the 62-year-old medical director of an Oxnard-based physicians network who has decided he can’t retire because of the economy. But he is alarmed at the number of healthcare professionals who could pack away their stethoscopes before hospitals and clinics are flooded by aging baby boomers with longer life expectancies and the uninsured people who will be covered by federal healthcare reform in 2014.
“Who’s going to see them?” he said. “Who’s going to see millions of people? I don’t know.”
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