The pandemic added – or should we say is still adding – additional workload on medical personnel. Laws of supply and demand suggest more would be signing up. However, the opposite appears to be true. American Medical Association (AMA) describes COVID leading to future shortage of doctors in a post of on May 4, 2022.
How Is COVID Leading to Future Shortage of Doctors
AMA believes the nation will “come up short on between 37,800 and 124,000 doctors within a dozen years”. They concede an aging workforce, and an older and sicker population play a significant role. However, that leaves a 3,272 shortfall statisticians find hard to explain.
But AMA has an explanation. It says doctors face a ‘pandemic of mistrust’ among their COVID patients that places them under immense strain. This desperation causes some to leave their profession, and create gaps that leave intensive care units slammed. It takes 10 to 14 years to develop a new doctor fresh out of school.
Employment Turnover in Health Care Workforce Ongoing
A recent study in Jama Health Forum reveals employment levels in most segments of the workforce have not fully recovered. Moreover – and this is alarming – “turnover rates among long-term care workers and physicians are worsening over time.” However, the physician workforce is worst affected with “continuous turnover increases.”
An estimated 1.5 million U.S. health care workers lost employment in April 2020. This was due to clinics temporarily closing, and hospitals postponing surgeries and other procedures. Health care employment is still 2.7% below pre-pandemic levels. Some 1.7% of physicians had left the work force, or were looking for work by October 2021.
AAMC researchers say “The COVID-19 pandemic associates with loss of revenue, reduced work hours and reduced earnings for physicians in the United States.” This does not put the nation in a more favorable position to face a future pandemic.
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Preview Image: Jacksonville Memorial Hospital
