The Chattanooga Times Free Press is featuring a piece today on the all too familiar and all too alarming trend toward a shortage of physicians in the US. This article, titled "Chattanooga: Turning away from surgery" specifically addresses the concern over a future lack of general sugeons based on trends seen at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine’s campus in Chattanooga.

Here's an excerpt:

“Mainly for me it’s the predictability of schedule,” he said. “General anesthesiologists work shift work, and when your shift is done, you go home.”
The number of general surgery residents here who practice as general surgeons is falling, said Dr. Phillip Burns, chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine’s campus in Chattanooga.
“Whereas 15 years ago 75 percent of our (general surgery residency) graduates here would be going into general surgery practice, it’s now down to about 25 percent,” Dr. Burns said.

The trend is raising concern among health care officials nationwide who see a declining number of general surgeons. Surgeons are leaving the field because of declining reimbursement, increasing malpractice premiums and exhausting schedules that require on-call duty. They often migrate to subspecialty fields that offer better pay and hours.

“We have a shortage of surgeons, and physicians in general, that is coming on like a freight train in this country,” Dr. Burns said. “If we don’t do something to increase the numbers of surgeons that are graduating and available to go into spots, we’re going to have huge problems. In 10 years we’re going to have catastrophic problems.”

More:

"Video: General surgeon numbers declining BY THE NUMBERS* The ratio of general surgeons per 100,000 people has declined from 7.68 in 1981 to 5.69 in 2005* 17,922 Number of surgeons in 2001* 16,662 Number of surgeons in the United States in 2005 — a 25-year lowSource: Archives of Surgery, April issuePHYSICIAN SPECIALTY SALARIESRanges of annual salaries for:* General surgeon: $249,700 to $336,000* Anesthesiology: $282,212 to $453,000* Radiology: $325,438 to $474,500* Dermatology: $224,630 to $418,789* Family medicine: $142,200 to $190,000SOURCE: Association of American Medical Colleges’ Careers in Medicine program.

RESIDENCY PROGRAM LIMITSFederal legislation hinders expansion of residency programs, doctors here said.After the federal Council on Graduate Medical Education projected a surplus of 80,000 physicians by the year 2000, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 froze the number of federally funded residency positions, making it a cost burden on training programs to fund new positions.The Residency Review Committee for Surgery also has been conservative in approving new general surgery positions, according to a recent article in the journal Archives of Surgery.Those guidelines should be revisited to get more general surgeons in the training pipeline, said Dr. Phillip Burns, chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine’s campus in Chattanooga."