1151 



neers, has been the growing shortage of medical doctors. In the recent 

 past the figure 50,000 seems to have been most frequently cited as indi- 

 cating the dimension of this shortage.^*^ However, more current assess- 

 ments tend to portray the shortage not so much in numerical terms as 

 in certain types of M.D.s and the maldistribution of specialists. Accord- 

 ing to the American Hospital Association, American hospitals are 

 currently short 10,000 physicians.^^" Hardly more than half of the 

 internships and residencies being offered in American hospitals are 

 filled by graduates of American or Canadian medical schools.^^^ 



In 1970, the Public Health Service estimated a shortage of 150,000 

 nurses and more than 250,000 allied health personnel, in addition to 

 the shortage of almost 50,000 doctors.^^^ "The United States simply 

 does not produce enough physicians to meet its national need for health 

 manpower," wrote Dr. Jacob L. Halberstam, Dr. Howard A. Rusk 

 and others in a study on FMGs."^ Some students of the medical brain 

 drain are more sharply critical in their judgments. "Senator Walter 

 F. Mondale and others have deplored our shortages in the medical 

 field, terming that shortage a 'national disgrace,' " wrote Harold E. 

 Howland in his case study of the medical brain drain from the Philip- 

 pines, and he added : "This writer must agree with that view." ^^* 



Nor is it likely that this shortage will be rectified in the near future. 

 Indeed the prognosis is gloomy, according to qualified observers on 

 the medical manpower scene, if retrenchment in federally supported 

 health programs continues. In 1968, Dr. Harold Margulies, author of 

 a thorough study on FMGs, wrote to the House Government Opera- 

 tions Subcommittee on Research and Technical Programs : "Although 

 some of the brain drain is due to our own manpower shortages, it is 

 almost certain that these will persist for many years, despite even the 

 most extraordinary efforts on our part." ^^^ Dr. Charles C. Sprague, 

 Dean of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, told 

 the subcommittee in assessing the impact of Federal health programs 

 on medical manpower requirements : "It would be difficult either to 

 define or to exaggerate the physician and other medical manpower 

 needs these new programs will generate. It is patently obvious that, 

 unless we make some giant strides forward in the area of research 

 in delivery of health services and increase our output of physicians 

 and other health personnel, we will have to continue to rely on per- 

 sonnel trained in other countries to a very substantial degree or simply 

 delay full implementation of many, if not all, of these programs." ^^^ 



Six years later in 1974 the shortage continues at a progressively ac- 

 celerated pace. Future prospects are not bright. Should funds be re- 

 duced in the area of federally supported medical research during the 

 coming year, said Dr. John A. D. Cooper, President of the Association 

 of American Medical Colleges, on May 15, 1973, there was a "strong 



288 The Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 12, 1973, p. 6. 



'^ Stevens and Vermeulen, op. dt., p. 5. 



»i Ibid. 



»2 The New York Times, Nov. 22, 1970, p. 40. 



=»3 Jacob L. Halberstam, Ph. D., Lawrence Antler Ph. D., Howard A. Rusk, M.D., and 

 Joseph D. Seltzer, "Foreign Interns in Commmunity Hospitals," Journal of Medical Educa-- 

 tion (June 1971), p. 504. 



2«* Howland, op. cit, p. 6. Mr. Howland proceeded to enumerate and categorize areas 

 where the shortage was most acute. 



^^ Hearings, House, Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 91. 



»«Ibid., p. 6. 



