'A long-time problem': What's contributing to a doctor shortage in Texas

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A new law going into effect in September aims to bring more doctors to Texas.

House Bill 2038, known as the Doctor Act, will allow experienced international medical graduates to skip residency programs required in the U.S.

This comes as some projections show Texas is facing a shortage of more than 10,000 doctors by the year 2032, according to HB 2038.

KXAN spoke with Dr. Ogan Gurel, physician and faculty expert in the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Business Health Care Administration program.

Gurel said many states are experiencing a shortage, with Texas specifically feeling it in rural regions.

"Geographically, it's a wider problem." He said. "Also, time-wise, this doctor shortage has been anticipated since the 1990s as people obviously saw the demographic trends with aging of the baby boomers, increased healthcare utilization and aging of the doctors, obviously, and retiring."

Gurel added the shortage was "accelerated" during the COVID-19 pandemic when many healthcare professionals left clinical practice. Furthermore, he said the shortage is happening "particularly in Texas with the growth in the population and a lot of incoming residents."

"So this has been a long-time problem and a widespread problem, but particularly acute in Texas," he said.

International medical graduates would have to meet certain criteria since the legislation allows for graduates to bypass U.S. residency.

"One of the particular challenges in Texas is, and I think Texas is the worst state in this regard, is the number of residency positions for U.S. medical graduates is actually less per medical student in Texas than it is in many other states," Gurel said.

For every 10 medical school graduates in Texas, there are only nine residency positions, he said. So, the real challenge is the lack of residency positions.

Rural areas in Texas also do not have enough primary care doctors, Gurel said.

"It's not so much the availability of the doctors, which there is a shortage, as we noted, but also the lack of infrastructure and the lack of sophisticated equipment to support practice. So it makes it very frustrating and unattractive to doctors -- foreign or otherwise," he said.