The exodus of doctors from New Mexico has been exhaustively researched and reported on.
According to the nonpartisan, Texas-based think tank, the Cicero Institute, as of April 2024 had a shortage of more than two thousand doctors.
It reported that 32 of the state’s 33 counties had a health professional shortage.
In the second of a three-part series on healthcare in New Mexico, KSFR reporter Dennis Carroll digs deeper into the reasons why doctors and other healthcare providers are leaving the state.
He spoke with former obstetrician / gynecologist Deborah Vigil, a native New Mexican, who said she retired not long after her malpractice insurance rates doubled in 2022.
The hikes arrived after a law approved by the legislature and signed by gov Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2021 raised damage caps and insurance coverage rates.
After Vigil’s patients learned of her plans to retire, they inundated the governor’s office with calls.
That community effort led to Lujan Grisham calling Vigil and eventually inviting the doctor to a meeting at her office, but Vigil wasn’t encouraged by the encounters.
“ I came away from that meeting with the governor, feeling like she wasn't taking ownership for sure. Uh, the mess that she and the trial lawyers had created that was already a problem, but they made it worse. So I knew that they probably had no interest in fixing that. She knew there were problems. She had to have known that physicians were already leaving New Mexico, and why on earth did they make that worse by undoing the tort reform that was in place?”
The governor’s office did not respond to reporter Dennis Carroll’s request to comment on his story.
Vigil said the shortage has led to more doctors being substituted by nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants, which works well sometimes but not for all conditions.
She said that the shortage has led to some doctors practicing without any oversight from other physicians.
Tune in to KSFR tomorrow afternoon at 12:30, for the final installment of Dennis Carroll’s three-part series on the state’s medical provider shortage. You’ll hear from two families who had to seek medical help outside of New Mexico.
