State to face shortage of health professionals
BY Anne Burke
UCLA Today Staff
California will not have enough physicians to care for its aging
and expanding population unless something is done to fix the problem,
according to a UC analysis of the state’s health-care needs.
Michael V. Drake, UC vice president for health affairs, told the
UC regents meeting at UCLA on March 16 that demand for physicians
will outstrip supply by 10,000 to 15,000 in the year 2015. There
will be a shortage of 60,000 registered nurses by 2020. Pharmacists
and veterinarians also will be in short supply.
The analysis was recently completed by the UC’s Health Services
Committee. It aims to define the state’s health-care workforce
needs and will guide decision-making and enrollment planning in
the UC’s health professions training programs over the next
10 to 15 years.
The analysis found that even as California’s population has
boomed in the past quarter century, enrollment in UC health science
programs has remained static. Of the 90,000 physicians practicing
in California today, only about 15% hold UC degrees, Drake said.
About 25% have medical degrees from a foreign country, he added.
“To have no growth at all in health sciences in 25 years
... is probably not in the best long-term interests of the state
and is something we should pay attention to,” said UC Provost
M.R.C. Greenwood.
As UC seeks to head off the impending crisis, Regent Odessa Johnson
urged administrators to include outreach programs in the solution.
She said the health- care professions are plagued by a lack of diversity
and that more high school students should be encouraged to take
courses that will prepare them for careers in those fields.
UC operates the largest health sciences instructional program in
the nation, annually enrolling more than 13,000 students in 15 schools
on seven campuses, including UCLA.
The committee’s report will be forwarded to other UC planning
groups, including a senior-level team that will begin intensive
long-range planning for the UC system this spring. To see the report,
go to www.ucop.edu/healthaffairs.
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