SC officials worry about doctor shortage

CHARLESTON, S.C.  - South Carolina already has a shortage of primary care and experts say the loss of a state-funded grant program to encourage young doctors to practice in rural areas is only going to make the problem worse.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Sunday that as more people get access to insurance and seek regular medical care, fewer doctors are practicing general medicine. The American Academy of Family Physicians says only one in five medical school graduates go into primary care.

Hampton County, for example, has seven primary care physicians for a population of more than 22,000.

"The good doctors in areas like ours aren't accepting new patients or they are doing it on a very limited basis," said Pete Tucker, an executive at an area hospital who recruits doctors to the county.

Tucker said the county needs at least five more primary care doctors and hasn't been unable to hire a single doctor in more than a year.

"Patients are leaving town, lining up, waiting for days to be seen or hours even if they have an appointment," Tucker said. "Now, more than ever, they're using the emergency room for non-emergencies because it takes too long to be seen by a primary care physician."

The situation is even worse in Williamsburg County, where there is one doctor for every 3,300 residents - three times the ratio for urban Charleston County, said Mark Jordan, director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control office of primary care.

"There's way too many doctors in Columbia, Greenville and Charleston and not enough in the rest of the state," Jordan said. "There are simply not enough providers per capita in the rural parts of the state."

A key to getting young doctors to the rural areas has been a state grant that provides $10,000 a year for a four-year commitment to practicing in underserved areas. But that program was cut this year in the state budget. And without that incentive, it can be difficult to lure doctors who frequently finish medical school with a load of debt and a desire to enjoy the amenities of larger cities.

"We need doctors desperately in Allendale, but who wants to go there?" said Becky Seignious, the director for recruitment and retention for the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium. The group works with health care professionals and tracks trends in health care supply and demand. "Their spouses won't want to go because it's not near anything else. They don't want to raise a family there because the schools are bad. Who can blame them?"

One solution, some say, is to try to interest high school students who live in these small towns in becoming doctors.

"They feel close to the patients and have strong ties to the communities," said Dr. Peter Carek, a professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Carek said Pennsylvania successfully retained doctors in rural areas by actively recruiting from those areas.

Dr. John Creel is just such a physician. He grew up in Cottageville, earned his medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and now practices family medicine in nearby Walterboro.

"The key is finding rural high school students who have strong science and math backgrounds and an interest in medicine," said Creel, who received $40,000 in state grant money while it was still available. "It's hard to keep a physician out in a rural area unless you grew up there."

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com