Country To Face Shortage of General Surgeons in Coming Years, Op-Ed Warns

The United States faces a potential shortage of general surgeons that could force patients to wait longer for operations and may lead to additional medical errors, Dr. Ivan Oransky, co-author of the Insider's Guide to Medical Schools, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Oransky writes that the number of U.S. medical school students deciding to practice general surgery, which requires at least five years of "grueling training" after medical school, has dropped "precipitously" in the past few years. This year, U.S. medical school students filled only 75% of the roughly 1,000 positions in first-year general surgery programs in the United States, down from 79% in 2001 and 85% in 2000, Oransky writes. He adds that the number of general surgeons in the United States has decreased from 38,376 in 1990 to 36,650 in 2000, according to the American Medical Association. Oransky states that a number of potential general surgeons decide to practice in other areas of medicine, such as physical rehabilitation and anaesthesia, "because they're less demanding jobs." He recommends that educators make studying general surgery more attractive for medical students by taking "some of the needless pain out of residency training" -- where "potential applicants are turned off by longer-than-necessary hours and nights without sleep" -- and provide more ancillary services to allow residents to "get some sleep." In addition, he urges educators to support legislation that would reform residency training hours and supervision, something the Association of American Medical Colleges has refused to do. Oransky concludes, "Unless we take these steps soon, the shortage of surgeons will ultimately result in lengthy waits for patients, health complications and, for some, death" (Oransky, USA Today, 4/16).