Almost two-thirds of doctors believe the United States is facing a shortage of adequately trained physicians, signaling a potential staffing crisis that could have serious implications for patient safety.

A study conducted by Medscape, which surveyed 1,000 medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, found that 63 percent of respondents stated their medical institutions were currently in need of hiring more full or part-time staff. 

Furthermore, 60 percent of those surveyed indicated that existing job vacancies were impacting their ability to perform their duties effectively, with nearly one-third noting a drop in the number of job applicants in recent years.

Experts are concerned that insufficient staffing levels may lead to increased mortality rates, as healthcare providers might overlook significant changes in patients’ health.

Current estimates highlight specific shortages in primary care, emergency room, and family medicine doctors, who are essential in providing care and guidance to families in clinics.

This survey contributes to growing anxiety about the worsening doctor shortage, attributed to an aging population that demands more healthcare services and a decline in the number of individuals choosing a career in medicine.

Responding to the survey, one unnamed doctor wrote that the number of locations near them requiring more staff had ‘exploded’ but there were ‘not enough qualified applicants’ to fill the position.

A second added that the number of new doctors graduating medical school had ‘not increased sufficiently to fulfil the anticipated needs of the future’.

‘Additionally, residency graduates entering the physician workforce have a more work-life balance approach,’ they continued, ‘which may be wise but, nonetheless, contributes to a lack of practicing physicians in the future’.

A third added: ‘Although AI may help us in the practice, I’m not sure it can overcome the shortage of doctors and nurses.’

Medscape revealed the shortage in an anonymous survey of 1,001 physicians.

The survey did not find any difference in vacancies between regions of the US, with about 70 percent of hospitals or clinics across each of the four regions reporting vacancies.

Only 22 percent of survey respondents said they thought that the quality of new applicants for positions had risen, while 42 percent said they were not confident that the vacancies situation would improve.

Among patients to be caught in delays for care was Francisco Delgadillo, 53, who died after experiencing cardiac arrest in the emergency room of a California hospital.

He went to hospital complaining of chest pains.

His case was revealed in July last year, with his family saying he was marked as lower risk upon admission and told to wait for a doctor to become available.

While waiting, the pain grew worse, and his family, who was with him, said they repeatedly asked medical staff for help. At one point, they even called 911 from inside the ER.

His son Ulysses Delgadillo Luna told NBC Bay Area: ‘He was, holding tight on his shirt where his heart was. He was, like, struggling to sit on, the chair. He kept moving around. He was laying down on the floor.’

A state and federal investigation carried out after the death found there were not enough nurses working that night and that his pain was not reassessed. A further investigation by NBC Bay Area revealed the unit had not been staffed properly in the days and months before his death.

In another case from January 2023, revealed in a lawsuit that was updated last year, a 12-year-old girl had her left leg amputated after waiting 10 hours for care in the hospital.

Meiah Tafoya, from New Mexico, fell while running to class in her middle school and was rushed to hospital in Albuquerque, where she was told to wait to be seen by a doctor.

The girl was in tears, and her leg went cold, but it is alleged that it took 10 hours for doctors to say she could not be treated at their hospital and would need to be transferred elsewhere.

According to the lawsuit, doctors at the new hospital said a lack of blood flow had led to the death of the tissue and her leg had to be amputated.

A spokesperson for that hospital said previously that they would ‘reserve comment pending litigation’.

The Association of American Medical Colleges, which tracks doctor staffing levels nationwide, warns that without action, 86,000 physician positions could be vacant by 2036.

Dr David Skorton, the head of the association, warned previously: ‘It is clear that both sustained and increased investments in training new physicians are critical to mitigating projected shortfalls of doctors needed to meet the healthcare needs of our country.

‘Most importantly, if additional investments critical to increasing the supply of physicians fail to materialize, projected shortfalls of doctors will be larger than [previous estimates suggest].’

The shortage of physicians began in the mid-1990s, after Congress limited the number of positions for training doctors it would fund.

Currently, it takes about four years to graduate medical school in the US after completing a Bachelor’s degree and then generally three to seven years of residency training depending on the field of practice. Some then go on to have fellowships on top of residencies to further specialize.

The average cost of four years of medical school is about $268,000, but can be upwards of $363,000 for private schools. Students must also consider living expenses, which are estimated at about $27,200 per year, or $108,800 over the four-year course.