TALLAHASSEE– Florida is running out of doctors at an alarming rate according to a new study, and it’s affecting patient care right now.

Florida is in critical need of doctors and the problem is getting worse according to a new study from the Teaching Hospital Council and Safety Net Hospital Alliance. Tim Goldfarb form UF Health Shands said, “There is bad news, the bad news is that we will be at least 7,000 doctors short to meet our citizens needs by 2025”

The shortage is effecting every region of the state and impacts various specialty care programs from general surgery to oncology.
Representative Cary Pigman predicted, “It will be manifest by delayed care, it will be manifest by more rescue therapy, that which we don’t like. If you don’t get good management of your health, or good management of your chronic condition, what we’ll wind up doing is seeing busy emergency departments taking care of you when in crisis.”

Part of the problem is not being able to keep medical school residents. Doctor Gary Goforth said patients in southwest Florida are already feeling the squeeze. “I refer patients now, sometimes it takes me months, to get them in to the specialists they need,” he said.

Nurse practitioners say they may not be the answer but could help close the gap; they are asking for authority to diagnose and prescribe medications. Other states already do it, and they say it can seriously benefit rural areas. “These other states, the Medicaid costs are going down, the Medicare costs are going down, health of people are going up,” said Susan Lynch from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Bills have been filed, but lawmakers say that the root problem of a physician shortage would still remain. The study says Florida would need to create and fill more than 13,000 residency positions by 2025 to stop the shortage. The solution will come from how much the legislature is willing to put into medical education funding.