Letter: Meet Doctor Shortage With Foreign Medical Graduates

The COVID-19 pandemic is spotlighting the demand for more medical personnel. Timely testing, personal protective equipment, ventilators or bed space are well known requirements.

Pre-pandemic, there was shortages of healthcare workers. Reports of doctors, nurses, EMTs and others getting infected — tragically with rising death tolls — demands on healthcare are exacerbated.

There’s a possible option.

Numbers of healthcare professionals left medicine for various personal reasons. Let me share my personal example. I studied pharmacy and obtained my medical degree in Europe, practiced medicine in Hungary and Iran before coming to the U.S. Here I earned Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification. When we learned our child had serious health issues, we put our son’s needs first. A decade later, he’s doing very well. Since then, I’ve happily become a U.S. citizen.

Numbers of stories like mine are areas of opportunity if public officials streamlined processes to bring similar scenarios into the healthcare system rapidly. Some states are calling on retired professionals. Why not take it a step further?

The federal government simplified medical treatments/equipment approvals to meet demands. Parallel efforts could speed re-entry into healthcare. That could prevent deaths due to a shortage of healthcare providers.

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