A recent survey by the Nueces County Hospital District on the Gulf Coast found a troubling trend.
The survey showed that the region, which includes county seat Corpus Christi, was facing a deficit in several medical areas, and that dozens of new doctors and physicians would be required to meet the needs of the growing region by 2030.
But just how to bring in those doctors posed its own problem.
Olivia Garrett, a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, took a deep dive into how officials are hoping to solve this issue, as well as what some of the effects this shortage is already having on locals. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Set the stage for us here, what exactly is the deficit that has been reported when it comes to the numbers? What was the hospital district looking for and what did they find?
Olivia Garrett: So they were looking at physician needs. And so they looked at the current supply and the anticipated needs/demand by looking into about 2030, over the next five years.
And what they found is that there’s gonna be a deficit of about 130 primary care physicians. And so that is in areas like family medicine, internal medicine, OB-GYNs.
Well, obviously, this would portend some tough times for patients in Corpus Christi, but you report that the area is already seeing a bit of the impact from a doctor shortage, no?
Yes. So I spoke to medical leaders and professionals, doctors in the community, as well as just community members. And what I heard sort of over and over again is that there aren’t enough doctors in Corpus Christi, there aren’t enough doctors in Nueces County, in the Coastal Bend, and really the state or the country.
And so that means sometimes longer wait times if you’re trying to find a new doctor or to get an appointment. If you’re trying to make a specialty appointment with a doctor for maybe a specific illness or condition, then that several-month wait can be more concerning.
And for some people, it’s really not uncommon for people to seek care in San Antonio or Houston – driving, you know, more than two hours for an appointment.
I was going to say that’s quite a haul, but why are we seeing this shortage? Obviously, as you say, it’s not just a problem in Corpus Christi, but it’s in other parts of the state and the nation. Why is there a doctor shortage?
Yeah, so some of the information I was able to find on that, and what I was hearing from the doctors themselves and the leaders in this area, is that some of it goes back to medical education and graduate medical education – how many people are coming out of doctor training programs and is it enough to meet the need.
And it seems like, from what I able to see, that’s sort of where part of the disconnect is. If there isn’t enough doctors in general, then some areas are going to be hit more than others and just aren’t going to have enough.
What are county leaders hoping that they can do to deal with an issue that seems so… Well, the problem seems truly fundamental – structural – here.
So the Nueces County Hospital District, their main goal is indigent care. So that is providing medical assistance for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford health care and who maybe aren’t able to afford government health care. So that’s sort of their main goals.
And in thinking about that, they are thinking about shortages at the county community level.
So they have been talking with lawmakers about the potential of getting the authorization for this hospital district to create a grant program that they would be able to work with health systems, hospitals in our area to attract and retain doctors.
That’s sort of in the early stages, so it’s unclear right now what exactly that would look like, but it would also depend on getting the support of state lawmakers for that to happen. So it’s really in the Texas Legislature’s hands at this point.
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But as you point out, that’s sort of with a focus to indigent care. What about folks who may have the resources, but when you’re facing a health emergency, the greatest resource in some respects can be time – just getting to a hospital, finding a doctor who can help you.
I know with the hospital district, if they were able to bring more doctors to the community then that would theoretically lessen the burden on the doctors who are already here. So I think that’s part of the idea.
Is there an issue of pay involved? I mean, Corpus Christi being a smaller location, I know that some doctors have found that the economics don’t work for them to go to places that are smaller when there are opportunities in larger cities that are also stressed by a shortage of medical professionals.
Well, it’s interesting. The Nueces County Medical Society, and they are a group of medical professionals – of doctors – they did a survey of their members and they released those results in 2024. And sort of some of the things they found is that many of doctors’ offices in the area are looking to recruit more people, but they are maybe having trouble doing that.
And so some of those reasons that those doctors identified as why they think maybe they can’t always find recruits is, you know, maybe doctors are looking for larger communities or areas where they view there might be more opportunities, for example, for their spouses to find jobs.
That is part of it, that some of those bigger, larger communities might be attractive – especially if you’ve never been to a place like Corpus Christi or don’t have connections here – it might not be as big of a draw as somewhere else. So that’s sort of what that survey found.
