Nearly two in three physicians say there are not enough qualified doctors in the US, in a warning over a staffing crisis that could turn deadly for patients.
A survey of 1,000 doctors and nurses by clinical monitoring group Medscape found 63 percent reported their hospitals were actively recruiting full or part-time staff.
And six in 10 warned that the current vacancies were affecting their work, while almost a third said the number of applicants had declined in recent years.
Experts fear that low staffing could lead to more deaths because it means doctors and other healthcare providers may miss critical shifts in their patients conditions.
Estimates suggest there are particular shortages of primary care physicians, in the ER and family medicine physicians, who work in clinics advising families.
The survey adds to mounting concerns over the escalating shortage of doctors, which is being fueled by a growing aging population requiring more medical care and fewer people pursuing 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’.
Francisco Delgadillo, 53, died in the emergency room after waiting for more than eight hours to be seen after complaining of chest pain
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.
Meiah Tafoya from New Mexico had her left leg amputated after waiting 10 hours for care in a local hospital. She was 12 at the time of the accident
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.
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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.
Almost two in three doctors say their hospital or clinic is looking to hire full or part time medical staff
There was no difference in vacancy rates between regions, the survey found
Doctors warned that they did not think the shortage of physicians would improve within the next few years (stock photo)
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.