Is Primary Care at Grave Risk of Collapse?

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine asks a question: Primary care-will it survive? While the demand for primary care doctors is increasing, fewer US medical students are choosing careers in primary care. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of US graduates entering family practice residencies dropped by 50 percent, according to this article.
A primary care physician is an extremely important link in the health care chain for several reasons including:
1. A primary doctor has the ability to see the patient as a whole rather than seeing him in terms of different systems (cardiology, neurology etc.).
2. An important aspect of medical care, preventive care is typically provided by primary providers
3. Several different problems can cause many common symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath or chest pain. The dizziness, for example, may be caused by problems with blood pressure, ears, brain circulation etc. In the absence of a primary provider, a patient may have to go to several different specialists before a proper diagnosis can be made.
This recent very well written article states that primary care based health care system can reduce costs while maintaining quality. A strong primary care based system not only makes fiscal sense, but is also the right thing for proper patient care. For the sake of our medical needs as well as those of our future generations, we have to do what ever we need to attract the best into this profession.
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