KevinMD thinks not – Adding more residency slots won’t improve primary care numbers
He makes an important point – unless we fix the "job" we will not have more primary care physicians.
His misses the other point. If we fix the job, then we do need to increase the pipeline.
He also misses that some of these slots will go to family medicine.
I still believe increasing residency slots for primary care is important. I also believe we need a major reconstruction of the job.
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Spot on.
We do have a deeper pipeline than is often discussed. There is a large influx of foreign medical graduates that are waiting in the wings for any residency slot.
Only arount 60-70% of the FM slots are filled by US grads each year. Increasing the slots won't get more US grads into the slots. In the Midwest, FM, IM, and Ortho are the top three recruited ares with the current shortages. $160,000-$180,000 starting salaries are not unheard of in my area for new grads in FM.
The pipeline may already be improving. Applications to our program are up 50% this year & several of the other programs are having similar increases. I think all this talk of the need for primary care in the healthcare debate is gettting through to medical students. Hopefully the job fix will happen so they'll be happy with their choice.