General surgeons are in short supply, particularly in rural areas, as a growing number of younger surgeons opt for specialties with less grueling schedules and better compensation, reports the Washington Post.
"The shortage of general surgeons is at crisis dimensions," George F. Sheldon, director of the American College of Surgery’s Health Policy Institute, told the Post. The number of new general surgeons certified each year in the United States remained about the same between 1980 and 2008, even as the population grew by about 79 million. Last month in the journal Surgery, researchers predicted that the United States could see a shortage of about 1,300 general surgeons as early as 2010.
While the shortage affects the entire country, rural areas are particularly hard hit, and the situation could get worse as more than half of rural general surgeons are nearing retirement age, according to the Post. The article notes that rural healthcare facilities can’t provide trauma care, deliver babies or perform procedures such as colonoscopies without a general surgeon nearby for backup.
—Irene Tsikitas
